The First and the Only
by June Odyssey
Summary: Hiccup wasn't technically banished. He left before anyone could do anything but get angry. Now people call him The First and no one knows who he really is. Plus the people of Berk don't connect him to The First since they don't know about Toothless. After one year he has a group of dragon riders, and is planning to kill the Red Death. Back on Berk Tuffnut has some second thoughts.
1. This is Home and That was Berk

**Chapter 1**

**This is Home and That was Berk**

The First and the Only.

Hiccup thought it was a singularly stupid title but sadly he had no say in it. Someone had coined the term and it caught on like a wildfire. Hiccup wished he knew who it was. Then he could arrest him for his crime against creativity. At least it made sense. The first dragon rider and the only night fury.

Hiccup sighed and watched the sun peek up from behind the horizon, slowly illuminating the island. He still wished they could have come up with something more... epic.

"Well, Toothless," Hiccup said, leaning farther back against the dragon's shoulder. "This is it. The one year mark."

Toothless lifted his head from his paws and looked at Hiccup inquisitively.

"Since we left," Hiccup explained. "One year since we left Berk for good."

Toothless grunted, and Hiccup imagined he was saying, _and good riddance_.

Hiccup chuckled. "You got that right, buddy. I think we've come a long way since then."

Twisting away from the sunset, Hiccup looked behind them at their little earth-and-stone village. Most people were still asleep, savoring their day to sleep in since Hiccup hadn't planned any exercises for today. He had decided last night to let everyone have the day to play with their dragons, sleep, and just generally relax. They deserved it. None of them had seriously complained (they jokingly complained all the time) about the excessive and rigorous work-outs and training Hiccup put them through every day. Hiccup was proud of them.

"So," Hiccup said, returning his gaze to the flaming red and pomegranate sunrise as he addressed his best friend. "What do you want to do today, Toothless. It's just you and me."

Toothless perked up, his ear sensors straight up and he wiggled with excitement.

"You're absolutely right, pal," Hiccup agreed. "We should go flying."

They didn't have a whole lot of time to themselves now that they had taken on more vikings and dragons. Hiccup spent a lot of time organizing and teaching the vikings, as well as working their smithy to make saddles. Thankfully, Drott had come along with enough blacksmithing skill to pick up leather work and saddle-making pretty quickly, which took a load off Hiccup's shoulders. But Hiccup still had many, many other things to do.

Toothless himself had work cut out for him as well. The Night Fury was constantly persuading wild dragons to give the humans a chance. Not only that, they had to work to keep them from following the host of dragons carrying food to the Red Death back on the nest. But Hiccup wasn't ready to face that dragon yet. He hadn't even sent anyone but himself as a scout to see if it had any weaknesses. He wanted his little rag-tag group of dragon riders to be as ready as humanly possible before they faced it.

Hiccup and Toothless quietly watched the sunrise for another twenty minutes until the sun had completely cleared the horizon and the brilliant hues of reds, oranges, and purples had faded to a myriad of blues. Then the twosome headed over to their great hall, which was really just a huge, circular pavilion with a fire pit in the center and tables placed spaciously around it. Breakfast was already out on the table courtesy of Aesa, their cook.

By the time Hiccup had started eating his chicken and Toothless had dug into the feeding station full of fish, a few vikings and their dragons were creeping out of their little stone houses. Obviously the dragons were way more cheery and awake than the vikings.

Hall Onundrson sat down with a plop next to Hiccup, eyes half-closed and his nadder bouncing cheerily behind him over to Toothless. He set his food and drink on the wooden table and yawned.

"Good – " Hall yawned again mid-sentence. "G'morning, Hiccup."

Hiccup smiled. Hall was almost impossible to wake up in the mornings. If it weren't for his nadder, Brighteyes, Hall would probably never get up in the mornings. That dragon deserved a medal. Drott was making it.

"Good morning, Hall," Hiccup greeted back, taking a sip of his water.

Hall plunked his papers, soon to be filled with the patrol schedule, onto the table next to his plate. He dove into his food with fervor that matched a dragon's and didn't say anything else to Hiccup.

Shaking his head, Hiccup smiled. Some things never change. He slid the papers over and checked yesterday's patrol schedule to see who was next.

"Torfi has morning patrol," Hiccup said aloud, though Hall probably wasn't listening. "Lodin has afternoon. Arni has evening, and I have midnight to sunrise."

Hiccup scribbled that down on the paper and glanced up as Aesa slid onto the bench across from him and Hall. "Are Tofa and Firescales back from their patrol yet?"

Aesa nodded and took a bite of her food. "She went straight to bed. About an hour ago. Who has this morning?"

"Torfi," Hiccup responded. "I'll make sure to tell him."

Hall finished off his plate and licked his fingers clean. "Sounds good. Brighteyes and I are heading to Bardikk with a few others."

Hiccup nodded. Bardikk was the closest island with a semblance of a market that somewhat tolerated their presence on Market Day. Today was Market Day, which was why Hiccup chose it as their day off in case anyone wanted to go.

"I'm going," Aesa put in. "And so are Drott and Lodin. I think Tofa was planning to come after she got some sleep."

"Alright, just make sure Lodin's back in time for his shift," Hiccup said, rising from the bench. "Toothless and I will be around."

Hall smirked, shaking his head. "Aren't you always?"

Hiccup shrugged with a smile and picked up his dishes. "I'll see you around. C'mon, Toothless."

Toothless pulled his head out of the feeding station and bounced happily after Hiccup, occasionally bumping his head against the viking's back to hurry him along.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Hiccup exclaimed, grinning at the dragon.

Once he'd disposed of his plate and cup Hiccup raced his best friend to their house (Toothless won) and pulled out their saddle and harness. As soon as Hiccup had his feet in the pedals Toothless was in the air.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Trader Johan finished selling things to the good people of Berk a few minutes ago, and Tuffnut, for the first time in forever, decided to stay and listen to the news he brought. Why? Well, he was attempting the seemingly impossible. He was going to be... _different _from Ruffnut.

Yes, he and Ruffnut had had _another_ sibling squabble, but a little more serious than usual. The twins did everything together, owned everything together, and practically thought everything together. To be honest, they were both fed up with that so they had agreed somewhat civilly (shocker, I know) to be different.

Tuffnut walked up to the group who had gathered to hear the news; Stoick, random-viking-Tuffnut-didn't-know, Gobber, other unknown viking, Astrid, someone else he didn't know, Fishlegs, another viking, Spitelout and Snotlout, and...

"Ruffnut! What are you doing here?" Tuffnut demanded. "This was my idea."

Ruffnut's expression turned livid and she shoved him in the chest. "No, it was my idea first!"

Astrid quickly stepped in. "Guys!"

Ruffnut stormed off disgustedly. "Fine, I'm going this way. _Don't_ follow me!"

"I won't!" Tuffnut called after her.

Astrid huffed and rolled her eyes, turning back to Johan. "You were saying about Bog Island?"

Tuffnut honestly gave listening a shot... for about 10 seconds. Seriously! Who cared how old Camicazi was, and what new traditions Bertha had put in place?

Tuffnut tuned back in when Stoick said, "Thank you, Johan, for bringing us news."

The crowd started to disperse but Johan piped up again, "Actually, there is one other bit of news. It's been circulating as a rumor for a while and I didn't really believe it until I saw it myself."

Rumors? Johan always told rumors, however strange. Why hadn't they heard this before? This sounded remotely interesting. Tuffnut stayed.

"What is it, Johan?" Gobber asked curiously.

"Well..." Johan wrung his hands and said hesitantly. "It seems there's a group of vikings making nice with the dragons."

Absolute silence. No one moved. No one said anything.

"What?" Stoick asked quietly, his tone taking a hard edge.

Now it made sense why Johan hadn't told them until he'd confirmed. Ever since Hiccup had made friends with a monstrous nightmare and flown off on it a year ago... well, this would obviously be a sore subject.

"I don't know exactly who they are," Johan said. "I've only seen two of them with one of those Nadders and a Gronckle. They seemed pretty young. Just teens. Nobody knows where they live. Except for one group who apparently attacked their island a couple of months ago. People say they came back from it with burned sails and broken ships. A few of 'em stop by the markets every once in a while, mostly the one on Bardikk. So most people reckon they're somewhere around that area."

No one seemed to know how to respond to that. A few people muttered, "traitors" or "friends with the devils" and so on.

"How many of them are there?" Astrid asked, but it was hard to tell if she was curious or plotting their downfall.

"Oh, just a few," Johan said. "A small number. Though apparently they welcome anyone who wants to join 'em. Which isn't that many. I don't know if... Hiccup is with them. I haven't seen. But their leader is a fellow people call The First and he rides a Night Fury they call The Only."

Anyone could join? It was going to be Market Day on a few islands in four or five days. Yeah, he knew things. And one word that danced around his mind was _adventure_. A half-baked plan formulated in Tuffnut's mind. He could stow away. Ride _dragons_, who were, by the way, some of the most destructive creatures _ever_. And to top it off, Ruffnut wouldn't think of it because she wasn't here. Tuffnut grinned.

* * *

**Hi, people of the HTTYD fandom. I'm new to here but not to fanfiction. I am, however, an avid HTTYD fan. Any idea how many times I've seen that movie? Too many times to count. And I'm still watching it. As well as all the HTTYD 2 trailers. They make me melt on the inside.**

**Does anyone think Tuffnut was out of character? I don't like the tv show version of him so I just kinda went with the flow. Did he turn out okay?**

**Review anyone?**


	2. Welcome to the Island With No Name!

**Chapter 2**

**Welcome to the Island With No Established Name!**

One thing Tuffnut had failed to work out; sustenance. Bardikk was three days away, so Trader Johan would arrive the day before Market Day so that he could take advantage of the whole day of selling. But while Tuffnut was manly enough to go without food for three days, water was another issue. In the end though, it _was_ his stomach that gave him away. It happened that night when Tuffnut smelled the aroma of fresh caught fish cooked on a controlled fire.

"What! Who's there!?" Johan had shouted when he heard the first stampede of yaks.

Man, his cover was blown! Tuffnut clutched his stomach and mentally told it to shut up. It didn't.

"Oh," Trader Johan said, he tone becoming knowing. "I have a stow away, don't I?"

Ah, well, may as well show himself. Tuffnut stood up in his barrel.

"Tuffnut, is it?" Johan asked.

"Maybe," Tuffnut said, trying to figure out if he should look wary or open.

"Oh, don't be like that," Johan said, setting down his knife on his dinner table, which consisted of a large barrel. "You're welcome here."

"I am?" Tuffnut asked. Weren't people supposed to be unhappy when you stowed away?

"Of course!" Johan exclaimed cheerily. "You coulda just asked, no need to be sneaky."

"Oh," was all Tuffnut said. That certainly would have been easier. But hey, not nearly as fun. And now he could eat, too!

"Come on, have some fish," Johan invited. "Where were you planning on going?"

"Barkik or wherever," Tuffnut said absently as he took a large bite of the fish.

"Bardikk," Johan corrected. "What for? Want to see a Market Day?"

Tuffnut opened his mouth (which was full of fish flesh) to respond but Johan beat him to it. "Oh, oh! You want to go join the dragon riders, don't you?"

Tuffnut swallowed and agreed. "Yeah, I do."

"And why would that be?" Johan questioned.

Tuffnut decided to give him the short answer. "Dragons are really destructive!"

Trader Johan raised his eyebrows. "Fair enough."

That was all the said on the subject.

~o~0~O~0~o~

For the first time in his life Tuffnut woke up bright and early (except for that one time he and Ruffnut pranked half the village at once, but that's besides the point). He left Johan and headed up the docks. All around people were setting up stalls with their goods in what seemed to be the village square.

Next problem. How was he supposed to find the dragon riders (which Tuffnut was pretty sure included Hiccup)? Would they come with their dragons or just come up in a boat like a normal viking. Personally, Tuffnut thought that would be rather boring. I mean, seriously, if you have a dragon that you can _fly,_ why take a boat? _Boring! _They would most likely come on their dragons. But would they even come at all? Eh, what the heck.

"Uh, excuse me!" Tuffnut shouted to get people's attention. "Anyone know if the dragon riders are coming today?!"

Everyone turned and looked at him like he was nuts. Well, he was, but that was immaterial. It was just a question. A girl who looked about twelve ran up to him and grabbed his arm, tugging him away from the center of attention.

"Are you crazy?" she demanded in a whisper, pulling him up next to a building.

"Yeah," Tuffnut responded immediately.

The girl gave him an exasperated look and said slowly, as if speaking to a child, "You don't just announce to the island that you're looking for the dragon riders."

"Why not?" Tuffnut asked. Honestly, it was just a question!

"Why not?" the girl echoed. "Because, nitwit, the dragon riders aren't exactly welcome here, and joining them is almost as bad as becoming an Outcast."

"So? Sounds exciting," Tuffnut said.

With a long-suffering sigh the girl said, "They don't generally show their faces. Their identities are secret. They wear hoods or helmets if they come with their dragons, probably as a safety measure."

"Still don't see how this applies," Tuffnut said.

Rolling her eyes, the girl explained, "You just showed your face to all of them, stupid. Now they know who you are."

"Dangerous." Tuffnut grinned. "I like it."

"You are impossible," the girl told him and turned to leave.

"Wait," Tuffnut called. "Do you know if they're coming today?"

The girl shrugged. "They didn't last time, but I've heard they come often. It just depends. If you're gonna join them you should wait until they're about to leave and then approach them. Sometimes villagers try to stop people from joining. You'd better watch your back."

"Oh, okay." That was definitely good to know. "Thanks."

The girl gave him an appraising look, and Tuffnut tried to decide if it was an approving look or if she was just thinking he was insane.

"I'm Hanna Hergeirson," she said at last, offering her hand.

Tuffnut shook her hand. "Tuffnut Thorston, prankster extraordinaire!"

Hanna smiled in spite of herself and shook her head. "Good luck, Tuffnut. I'll see you around."

Hanna left, and Tuffnut stepped away from the building and walked back into the square. Five minutes later he was very glad Hanna had warned him.

"You say yer gonna join them dragon riders, lad?" a big burly viking asked.

"Yeah, danger and adventure!" Tuffnut responded enthusiastically.

The viking shook his head. "You don' know what yer getting' yerself into, lad. Them dragon riders are _evil._ I heard they carry off small children in the middle of the night. Happened on another island just a little ways from here."

"Uhhh..." Tuffnut tried to formulate an answer and ended up just saying, "Thanks for the warning."

The viking nodded. "O' Course. Stay away from those types, lad. They're no good. Don't make a decision you'll regret."

His was just the first of many 'warnings' Tuffnut received that day.

"They don' have human hearts!" one woman, a tailor, told him while she folded fabrics. "They cut 'em out an' replace 'em wit' dragon hearts! They're monsters!"

"They sacrifice blood, I tell you," said a cobbler, setting a pair of boots on his counter. "Every night they cut their arms and burn the blood for strange dragon-gods."

"Have you heard about their leader, The First?" asked the village's blacksmith. "They say he's got no eyes. Just pits of fire and darkness. Who knows what the rest of his face is like. He wears a helmet to cover it up."

"Those dragons are devils, lad," warned another viking, patting his yak's shoulder. "Don't believe any tales of grandeur about them. Every time they land on the dock they stare at us with their evil eyes. They'll rip you apart if you don't promise to serve them! And then _poof!_ Just like that you're enslaved to a monster."

And so much more.

After he heard that dragons and their riders were magical illusions made to lure you to your death, Tuffnut was fed up with the rumors. I won't go into the details, but suffice to say by the time the dragon riders arrived the village was more than willing to hand Tuffnut over to them. In fact, they wished him well. Tuffnut was rather satisfied about that. _And_ he accomplished all of it _without_ Ruffnut. He was really coming along.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Lodin was planning on getting a new pair of boots and then hopping back on Flire (get, Flier and Fire? No? Well, he thought it was clever) to fly home. He thought it would be a quiet, quick trip before his patrol shift. Lodin, nor anyone else, expected the residents of Bardikk to practically shove a teenage viking with blonde dreadlocks at them and nearly beg them to take him.

Lodin glanced at Drott, Hall, and Aesa. "Sure, as soon as I buy a new pair of boots I can take him back home."

A new pair of boots were thrust into Lodin's arms.

"Have 'em fer free, lad," the cobbler said, eyes wide and pleading.

All the villagers stared at the blonde viking like he was bad luck. One girl in particular watched the proceedings with a knowing smile and an amused shake of her head. Lodin shrugged. He wasn't complaining. He was getting free boots out of this deal.

"Okay, let's go then." Lodin motioned to the other teen, and the whole village exhaled a collective sigh of relief.

Lodin mounted back up on Flire, his spritely brown and blue Nadder, and offered a hand to the other viking. Without reservation he grabbed Lodin's hand and swung up behind him.

"Up, Flire," Lodin ordered, and the nadder complied.

"Cool," the other teen remarked behind Lodin, and he saw him grin out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm Lodin," Lodin introduced himself. "Lodin Stafngrimrson."

"Tuffnut Thorston," the other viking responded. "This is so awesome."

Lodin grinned back. "Yeah, it is. Though, most people freak out first."

"What? Why would I freak out? This is AWESOME!" Tuffnut asked and leaned sideways, looking dangerously close to slipping off Flire's back.

Lodin instinctively jerked a hand around and righted Tuffnut. "Don't do that. You can do that on your own dragon, but not on mine."

Tuffnut huffed. "Fine."

Lodin faced front again and hoped Tuffnut wouldn't turn out to be too much trouble. Or a traitor. That had happened before.

"Hey, a guy named Hiccup wouldn't happen to be one of your dragon riders, would he?" Tuffnut asked suddenly.

Lodin glanced curiously behind him at Tuffnut. "Yeah, Hiccup is The First. But how do you know that? Nobody knows our names or our faces."

"Wait, Hiccup's The First?" Tuffnut repeated. "Doesn't the First have a Night Fury or something?"

"Yeah, he does. But you still haven't told me how you know that."

"But I thought Hiccup had Monstrous Nightmare," Tuffnut persisted, ignoring the question.

Lodin sighed. "No, he doesn't. He mentioned something about flying on a Monstrous Nightmare from his home island but... wait, are you from Berk?"

"Yup," Tuffnut responded. "So Hiccup has Night Fury. Wow, I gotta ask how he did that."

"You grew up with Hiccup?" Lodin remarked, wonder filling his voice. That must've have been great. Hiccup was so smart and talented, he must have been a great friend.

"Uhhhhh..." Tuffnut didn't seem so happy about the turn of conversation. "Sort of. So what's the being a dragon rider like?"

Lodin decided to let him change the subject and started explaining life on the dragon rider island (which no one could agree on a name for). "Well, we do a lot of things but mostly we train. Once you bond with a dragon Hiccup'll teach you the basics until you can join us on our exercise flights. We're training so that we'll be ready to take on the Red Death."

"What's the Red Death?" Tuffnut asked.

"It's the queen dragon," Lodin replied. "It lives in the nest and controls all the smaller dragons. It's a lazy, tyrannical beast. The Red Death controls their minds and makes them bring it food. That's why the dragons raid our villages, because they need to get enough food to the Red Death when she calls them back , otherwise she'll eat them."

"Oh, well why haven't you guys killed it already?" Tuffnut asked.

Lodin snorted. "If only it were that simple. That dragon is huge. The size of mountain. And its mind control is growing stronger everyday. Hiccup thinks pretty soon it could force dragons to attack us. But he doesn't want to go after it until we're as ready as we can be."

"Sounds exciting," Tuffnut remarked, grinning insanely again.

"At least one of us thinks so," Lodin muttered under his breath.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Hiccup grinned, his face flushed from his and Toothless's joyride. "C'mon, bud. Let's give it a go."

Toothless groaned underneath him, like he usually did when Hiccup suggested trying out his tricks.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Hiccup cried happily. "I got it last time!"

Toothless snorted.

Hiccup couldn't really blame the dragon. Maybe last time it had worked but the time before he'd missed and landed on Toothless's tail. The time before that he hadn't jumped high enough and had hit the rock arch. And the time before that... well you get the idea. Toothless had reason to worry.

"Alright, let's do this," Hiccup said, more to himself than to Toothless.

As they neared the arch Hiccup pulled his foot up from the pedal and leaped up. He sailed over the approaching arch and landed with a _thunk_ on Toothless's back. Quickly shoving his foot back into the pedal, Hiccup grabbed onto the edge of the saddle.

"Yes, it worked!"

Toothless expertly steadied his slightly wobbled glide and beat his wings three times, lifting them until they were level with their tall island.

Hall and Lodin had been in a heated debate over what to name the island for several months now. Hightop, Dragonaria, Nest Too, Fort Dragon, Buddy Land (Hiccup vetoed that one), Thor's Rock, and even "Indecisive." But no one could agree. The island had a beach that lead to a network of caves underneath, but the top where they lived and plant life grew didn't touch the beach. You had to be a really skilled climber or flying on a dragon to get on it. Of course, that didn't protect it from catapults.

Hiccup shuddered, he'd rather not think about that.

"C'mon, bud," Hiccup said, patting Toothless on the shoulder. "Let's go home for a little while, we have night shift and we can fly more then."

Toothless obliging angled toward the island's cluster of houses, constructed of stone to prevent accidental (or purposeful) burnings. Below them he saw Lodin had already come home, and his Nadder Flire was trotting cheerfully behind him. Lodin seemed to be talking to someone else. Was it Torfi? No, Torfi was with Arni at the northern sea stacks.

Hiccup frowned. A new addition? It had to be. He should probably greet them.

"Land over there, Toothless," Hiccup requested. "Let's say hello."

They dropped down silently behind the two vikings, and Flire squawked a greeting at them.

"Hey, Lodin, who's this?" Hiccup asked.

Lodin turned, and so did the other person, but before Lodin could say anything, Hiccup burst out:

"Tuffnut?!"

"Hey, Hiccup," Tuffnut said, grinning like they were old pals.

"What are you doing here?" Hiccup demanded, and immediately looked around for someone he must have missed. "Where's Ruffnut?"

Tuffnut huffed. "We're not the same person! We _do_ have different lives and stuff."

Hiccup raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

Tuffnut maintained his defensive composure for all of five second before he caved under Hiccup's eyebrow look (he learned it from Toothless). "Okay, so Ruffnut and I were fed up with being the same, and having all the same stuff, and all the same thoughts, so we decided to try to be different and then I heard Trader Johan talking about dragon riders and how anyone could join and I thought you were probably one of them so I stowed away and came to be a dragon rider so I could be different from Ruffnut!"

Hiccup's other eyebrow raised too. "You turned traitor to Berk just so you could be different from your twin?"

"Oh good, you got it," Tuffnut said. "_I_ wasn't even sure what I was saying."

"No wonder," Hiccup responded. "Did you even breathe?"

"Nope."

Hiccup shook his head in wonderment. "Well, there's no going back on it now. Welcome to the island of dragon riders, Tuffnut."

"What kind of name is that?" Tuffnut questioned immediately.

"The only one he doesn't hate," Lodin said with a pout. "I still like Hightop."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "When you come up with one that doesn't sound ridiculous, I'll accept it."

"Which'll be _never_," Lodin groaned.

"Don't you have patrol, Lodin?" Hiccup said pointedly.

Lodin scowled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm going. I know how you all really feel about me. C'mon Flire, let's go where we're wanted."

Lodin dramatically threw himself into Flire's saddle and with one last jokingly wounded glance at Hiccup, the two took off for their patrol.

After a moment Tuffnut exclaimed, "This is gonna be _awesome!_"

Hiccup just thought he had the strangest group of dragon-sympathizers possible. Well, at least he had a group.

"Did Lodin already give you a tour?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool, Hiccup," Tuffnut said. "We should've listened to you more on Berk!"

It was a passing comment, and most wouldn't have made anything of it, but that last sentence warmed Hiccup's heart a little. He hadn't need any of Berk's approval since he met Toothless, but it was still a sore spot. It was undeniably pleasant to have someone finally recognize his talents, and not his talent at destroying things (which honestly wasn't _that_ great).

"Yeah, it is," Hiccup agreed. "You can stay in the guest house until you and Torfi build another house for you, but we'll hold off on that until we get you a dragon."

"How exactly does that work?" Tuffnut asked as Hiccup lead the way to the guest house.

"We'll go to the nest or there's a cluster of islands pretty thick with dragons, and we'll just introduce you to any dragon you like the look of."

"Awesome!"

Hiccup smiled, hoping it wouldn't be so bad to have someone from Berk here. Specifically Tuffnut. Maybe he should try to pair him with a tame, non-destructive dragon for the safety of the Barbaric Archipelago. Then again, blowing stuff up could become real handy in the near future.

* * *

**Two questions: 1) Do you guys have any other ideas for the name of the island? Because I'm drawing a blank. 2) Any say on that dragon Tuffnut should have? He can't exactly fly a zippleback by himself, so it'll have to be something else. I was thinking Torch the Typhoomerang or a nightmare. Any other ideas?**

**Thank you people who reviewed! I love you lots! Have a cookie (::) (::) (::)**

**Anyone else want a cookie? Review! :)**


	3. Picking and Choosing No! We're Done!

**Chapter 3**

**Picking and Choosing... No! We're Done!**

"Hightop!"

"Dragon Point!"

"Draconem Insula!"

"Dracul!"

"Providence!"

"Providence?"

"Yes, Providence. What's wrong with that?"

Hiccup watched with an amused smile as Lodin crossed his arms defensively across his chest and glared at Hall. Tonight was one of those days when they decided to all eat at the largest table in their mess hall (minus Arni, who was on patrol duty) for dinner. And now the two viking dragon riders were going at it again over the name of their island.

"What does 'providence' have to do with dragons?" Hall asked derisively.

"Dragon are our 'providence'," Lodin responded seriously.

"Are you sure you know what that word means?" Hall shot back.

Hiccup glanced at Tuffnut, who had shouted out a couple of suggestions so far and seemed to be getting into the debate. Hiccup wished he wouldn't. This island already had two people arguing over the name, it didn't really need another. To Hiccup's right a little way down the table sat a young girl that had come back with Drott, Hall, and Aesa about an hour ago from Bardikk. She said she was twelve and her name was Hanna. Two new dragon riders in one day. Who would've guessed?

"Well, how about Rider Island?" Torfi suggested. "Keep it nice and simple."

Tofa, who was his sister, elbowed Torfi in the side. "That's so un-exciting!"

"What about..." Tuffnut lifted his hands into the air and paused dramatically before delivering his idea. "Fort Fury!"

"That's a stupid idea," Hall sniffed.

Aesa, who sat next to him, smacked Hall harshly on the arm. "Hall! Be nice."

Hall looked suitably chastised, as only Aesa could make him look.

"Wait, wait!" Tuffnut interrupted again. "How about Fire Rock?"

"No," Lodin said immediately. "Not all dragons breathe fire."

"We could call it something in Old Norse," Hanna piped up. "Like Dreki Hermaðr. It means dragon warrior."

"That's not bad," Tofa said supportively. "Unlike some of the other suggestions around here."

Lodin and Hall looked suitably affronted.

"How about Dragonheim?" said Drott, speaking up for the first time.

Hiccup actually liked that one. But he didn't say anything yet and let the conversation continue around him, the vikings forming friendships over the naming of the island. He leaned back in the chair and absently listened to all the ideas, patting Toothless on the top of his head. The dragon was curled around his chair, which he could only do since Hiccup was sitting at the head of the table.

"Cloud Walker Island?"

"How about Wind Walker?"

"What about combining Dragonheim and Dreki Hermaðr?"

"You mean like Drekiheim?"

"Oooh, how about Dracultop?"

"Lodin, are you still stuck on the whole 'top' thing?"

"What? We're on top of a tall rock island. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Rocktop!"

"NO!"

The stong voice that belonged to Hanna cut in with, "What do you guys think of The Wingback Isles?"

Hiccup immediately perked up, and so did Toothless. They both like the sound of that.

"Wingback _Isles_?" Hall echoed. "In case you haven't noticed, we're on _one_ island."

"Then what are those?" Hanna asked, pointing to the two thin, linear islands that they could see off the Northern side of the island.

"We don't use those," Lodin told her.

"We could," Tofa pointed out.

"Oh!" Aesa sat up straighter, a smile lighting her face. " If this island was the body, those two kind of look like the wings."

"Of a giant fly," Torfi said, grimacing.

"_Or_ a dragon," Aesa countered, rolling her eyes.

"I like Wingback," Hiccup spoke up.

Everyone looked at him like he was nuts.

"What? I can't have a positive opinion?" Hiccup asked defensively.

"No," Drott said bluntly, taking a bite of his fish.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Well, I have one. Let's go with Wingback Isles and end the discussion there."

Hall and Lodin pouted while Hanna looked exceptionally pleased with herself.

"You sure you don't want to pick something more explosive?" Tuffnut asked.

"No more picking," Hiccup said firmly.

Hall, still scowling, opened his mouth to protest, but Hiccup didn't let him.

"So! Torfi, Tofa, you guys should take Hanna to see if she can find a dragon she likes tomorrow."

"Really?!" Hanna squeaked, a huge grin on her face.

Hiccup smiled at the young girl's excitement. "Really. We need to get you in the air as soon as possible."

"Uh, me too," Tuffnut added, waving a hand in the air.

Hiccup smiled again, inwardly marveling how different Tuffnut acted away from Berk and the rest of the traditional vikings. "Yeah, you too, Tuffnut. I'll take you myself. I want to check the area again."

"Yes!" Tuffnut grinned that insane, patented Thorston twins grin and pumped a fist in the air. "When do we leave?"

"Sometime after my patrol," Hiccup said.

"Why do you have patrols?" Hanna asked. "I thought no one knows where you are."

"Most don't," Hiccup replied. "But a few months ago we were attacked by Dagur the Deranged, and we've been extra careful since then."

"Oh," was all Hanna said.

The rest of dinner went in companionable silence and meaningless conversation. Hiccup finished quickly and headed off with Toothless to take patrol duty from Arni.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Hiccup never took any potential dragon riders to the nest to find a dragon. It was too dangerous, at least until they killed Red Death. So two days after Tuffnut's arrival Hiccup handed over the training to Aesa and Hall for the day, woke up Tuffnut bright and early, and they flew to some of the more populated but less dangerous dragon islands.

The whole flight Tuffnut begged him to do some aerial stunts but Hiccup declined. But then Tuffnut threatened to tickle him and Hiccup caved. It wasn't that Hiccup was ticklish or anything. Oh no! He just didn't want the distraction of having Tuffnut try. That was it. That was all! Why are you so suspicious!?

"Alright, alright. Toothless, have a little fun," Hiccup told him.

Toothless growled happily and obliged. Tuffnut was treated to several loop-the-loops and corkscrew dives. Hiccup was extremely grateful when they landed on one of the islands near the nest (but far enough away to be safe). He thought his eardrums were going to be permanently damaged.

Tuffnut hopped off Toothless with an exhilarated whoop, and Hiccup thought that Tuffnut would need fast dragon. Or maybe they should get him a slow one.

"Ooh a Gronkle! No, too slow. Nadder! Eh, no."

Hiccup couldn't help but smile as Tuffnut ran back and forth, forward and backward. The dragons here were pretty used to human visits, and since they had no visible weapons the dragons were relatively at ease. The just went about their business as Tuffnut ran up to them and then away to another.

Then Hiccup glanced at Toothless and laughed out loud. The night fury was following Tuffnut's dashing with wide eyes. He growled curiously, like he was saying, _We're not really keeping this maniac are we? He's not sane!_

Still chuckling, Hiccup said, "Yes, Toothless, we're keeping him. We need all the help we can get."

Toothless snorted, _And this is helpful?_

Biting his lip to keep from laughing again, Hiccup turned back to see Tuffnut on his hands and knees with his face rather close to a fallen log overgrown with plants. "What are you doing?"

"Hey, Hiccup!" Tuffnut yelled. "I've never seen this type of dragon before!"

Curiosity peaked, Hiccup jogged over and knelt next to Tuffnut. A dragon that was not much bigger than a Terrible Terror was peering inquisitively at them.

"Neither have I," Hiccup said, surprised. A new dragon. Who would've thought? He really shouldn't be surprised, though. They really didn't know much about dragons. Hiccup had been composing his own book of dragons for a year now and he was finding new things all the time. "We should take it back and study it."

"It's pretty cool," Tuffnut said, staring wonderingly at the dragon. "But still too small to ride."

Then Tuffnut was on his feet again, looking at all the other dragons, but not without a backward glance at the strange dragon.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Ruffnut wasn't lonely, or frustrated, or even regretting a word she'd said in the past week. Nope, not one bit. She was free! No longer was Ruffnut Thorston held down by a twin. She could do whatever she wanted. She was her own person, not part of one. Ruffnut didn't even care that she had no idea where her twin was.

Truth be told, no one had seen grin nor dreadlock of Tuffnut since Trader Johan had left Berk six days ago. Ruffnut guessed he was out camping in the woods and fending for himself. And no, she wasn't the least bit peeved that she hadn't thought of that first. In fact, she was pleased. It meant they were really being different now!

Ruffnut rolled her spear glumly between her hands. But she had no one to practice with. Or to pummel. Or to argue with. Or to –

"Ruffnut!"

Looking up, the viking girl saw Astrid running up to her.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" Astrid said, not even breathless from her sprint.

Ruffnut only grunted in response.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Astrid asked with concern.

Any passerby would be surprised that rough and tough (no pun intended) Astrid Hofferson was displaying the so-called 'weak' emotions, but Astrid and Ruffnut had long since made a pact that when it was just the two of them they could be relaxed teenage girls. Not shieldmaidens and dragon fighters, just girls.

"Are you missing Tuffnut?" Astrid asked perceptibly.

"No," Ruffnut snapped.

Astrid arched a disbelieving eyebrow, but she let it go. "Wanna spar? Snotlout's driving me nuts."

"Sure," Ruffnut agreed.

As the walked to the arena, Ruffnut wondered where Tuffnut was and what he was doing. Probably shivering to death because he forgot how to start a fire, or starving because he didn't have any food. The idiot.

* * *

**Thank you to all who suggested names for the island, I considered them all and used them all :) And thank you RollingUpHigh for that winning suggestion.**

**As to the issue of Tuffnut's dragon, I carefully considered each suggestion and Torch seemed the winner of that title. But I felt like Torch was only so easy for Tuffnut to train because they had already met him and played with him. So do you guys think I should wait for Torch to grow up, with some intermediate dragon, or should I, and this is random, give him the Skrill. I decided that Hiccup and Tuffnut are about to get their first adventure together starting with the skrill, which they'll either free or keep. Thoughts, guys? I kinda want Tuff to have an awesome dragon.**

**By the way... I GET TO SEE A PRE-SHOWING OF HTTYD2 TOMORROW NIGHT! SO EXCITED!**


	4. Adventuring with the Nuts

**Chapter 4**

**Adventuring with the Nuts**

By the time the sun was sliding behind the horizon Tuffnut's dreadlocks had been incinerated to a half their original length by a nadder, his hands had been singed by a nightmare, and he had almost had his hand bitten off by a gronkle. When they had seen a hideous zibbleback Tuffnut had taken one looked and spun in the other direction. He wasn't even close to settling on a dragon.

After th zippleback incident Hiccup thought he wasn't quite as 'over' Ruffnut, so to speak, as he claimed to be. He probably missed his sister a lot by now. Really, Hiccup shouldn't be that surprised. Tuffnut and Ruffnut hadn't been separated since... well ever.

"So, Tuffnut..." Hiccup began tentatively.

"What?" Tufnut asked, staring contemplatively at nightmare while it casually set itself on fire.

"Well... are you sure about this?" Hiccup asked, wondering exactly how to phrase his question. "You and Ruffnut – "

"I don't need her," Tuffnut scoffed, turning away from the nightmare a trudging away, presumably to look at other dragons.

"It's just, you guys have never really done anything separately... _ever,_" Hiccup said, jogging a bit to catch up with Tuffnut. "And, if you wanted to, you could go back. "

Hiccup didn't really want Tuffnut to go back. He needed every rider he could get and he had a feeling that Tuffnut was going to be the only viking on the island who didn't look at Hiccup with a just little bit of distance between them. He was, in a sense, their chief, and generally you don't make close friends out of your chief. Of course, he had Toothless and Hiccup wouldn't ask for anything more, but the amount of distance was getting to Hiccup just a little. But still, Hiccup didn't want Tuffnut to be miserable.

Hiccup decided to continue since Tuffnut hadn't responded yet."We keep our identities under wraps – "

"Nah, everybody saw my face on Bardikk," Tuffnut interupted agian. "You're stuck with me."

Hiccup smiled at that but before he could say anything Toothless bounded up next to him and nudged his shoulder. Then he perked up and tilted his ear sensors to their left. _Listen._

Both vikings stopped and listened very carefully. The forest was silent. A glance behind him revealed that the nightmare Tuffnut had been looking at before was gone.

Toothless crept slowly to their left, and toward the closest beach if Hiccup remembered correctly.

"What is it?" Tuffnut whispered.

"I don't know," Hiccup replied. "But Toothless hears something, so I'm gonna trust his hearing."

"Good idea," Tuffnut agreed.

The two of them tiptoed after Toothless scanning their surrounding for whatever was upsetting the night fury.

" – not on any of these islands!"

They froze.

"We don't know that!" a familiar voice shouted. "We haven't looked at all of them. Besides, we might find Hiccup and his little band of dragon huggers while we're out here. They probably come here all the time."

"Do you know this guy?" Tuffnut questioned quietly.

Hiccup's gut clenched and he nodded. "Dagur the Deranged. He killed his father to be chief of the Berserkers a few months ago and attacked us soon after."

"Fantastic," Tuffnut muttered.

Hiccup hoped he was kidding.

"But Dagur!" another Berserker protested loudly. "If the skrill was out here it wouldn't people have heard?"

The skrill? Why would Dagur be looking for the skrill? Hiccup wondered, his fists clenching.

"Not if it's hiding!" Dagur snapped.

The voice fell back into a normal level that they couldn't hear from their distance.

"Dagur's looking for a skrill?" Hiccup murmured, more to himself than to Tuffnut and Toothless.

"Isn't it, like, their symbol or something?" Tuffnut asked.

Hiccup looked over at Tuffnut, eyebrows raised. "How do you know that?" He hadn't even remembered that.

Tuffnut only shrugged.

A bout of sudden boldness overtook Hiccup and he said, "Not quite as stupid as you pretend to be, huh?"

Now it was Tuffnut's turn to be surprised. But he quickly covered it up by quipping, "I think I accidentally payed attention once."

Hiccup laughed quietly, and tried ineffectually to pull the grin off his face. Toothless snorted and nudged them Hiccup's head as if to say, _enough bonding, we have a problem._

"Right, sorry, bud," Hiccup whispered and crept slowly forward. Just visible through the trees stretched a thin white-gold strip that was the beach. As he got closer he kept close to the trees, always keeping his body partially hidden in case Dagur came into sight. He didn't look back at Tuffnut and Toothless but from the soft sounds behind him he assumed (hoped) they were being equally as stealthy. Finally Hiccup spotted the Berserker's ships, anchored a little way off shore, and two rowboats on the beach.

Pressing himself behind one of the trees, Hiccup listened intently for any other signs of conversation.

"Dagur!" a newcomer called a moment later. At least, Hiccup assumed he was a newcomer based on the sound of running and the breathlessness of his voice.

"What is it?" Dagur growled.

"They've found it!" the newcomer gasped. "Nit's ship just sent word! They've found the skrill! They've already started to cut it out of the ice."

"HAH!" Dagur shouted, glee coated his voice along with his customary deranged edge. "FINALLY! Let's go, men! The skrill will be ours and we will unleash its fury on Hiccup and his little band of dragon riders!"

The Berserkers cheered.

Hiccup, Toothless, and Tuffnut didn't say anything. They just listened to the sound of the Berserkers packing up and boarding their ships. When it was at last silent Hiccup ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. What was the saying? 'No rest for the weary,' right? Couldn't things calm down, just a little, for a while?

Apparently not.

"Sooo..." Tuffnut began slowly. "That's really bad... right?"

Hiccup sighed again, Toothless nudged him in the arm. Standing up straighter, Hiccup said, "Yeah, that's really bad. I don't know if Dagur can really harness the power of the skrill, but I'd rather not find out."

"So we're going back?" Tuffnut asked.

Glancing over his shoulder at the retreating ships, Hiccup decided. "No, we're not. We don't have time. Berserker ships aren't the fastest but they can still put on some speed. They'll be long gone by the time we could return with the rest of the gang and we don't know where they're going."

"Wait, so we're going to stop them ourselves?" Tuffnut asked.

Toothless gave Hiccup a disapproving look, like he knew what his rider was thinking and didn't like it one bit. Hiccup couldn't blame him. He didn't like it either.

"Yeah, we are," Hiccup said. He hated to go with only two of them, but the risk of losing Dagur was too great.

"So, we're going to take on an entire Berserker fleet by ourselves?" Tuffnut continued.

Hiccup winced. "When you say it like that..."

"No," Tuffnut said, a manic Thorston grin spreading across his face. "It sounds awesome! You've gotten braver, Hiccup."

"Or dumber," Hiccup said with a third sigh. "Come on. I'm putting you on the first dragon we see. We can worry about whether you work well together later. Right now we're running out of time."

Hiccup was not thrilled when that dragon was a monstrous nightmare. Toothless turned to Hiccup and gave him a look like, _how about the second dragon?_

"We're running out of time," Hiccup repeated firmly, even as he thought that this was going to turn out badly.

~o~0~O~0~o~

The woods were empty.

The birds sang, rodents scurried along, and the insects buzzed about, but the woods we're still empty.

Astrid glanced at Ruffnut and her heart grew heavy for her friend. Ruffnut's lips were pressed into a thin line and she had a white-knuckled grip on her spear as the two trudged through the forest back toward the village. No sign of Tuffnut. People were starting to get worried. It was like Tuffnut had vanished into the wind. Nothing remained.

Astrid considered telling Ruffnut that they would find him for sure, but she felt it was foolish to make such an empty promise. Instead she said, "He probably isn't in the woods. Where else do you think he could've gone?"

Ruffnut shrugged wordlessly, the somber expression fixed on her face. Astrid thought it looked out of place.

"Well, he did seem to disappear about the time Trader Johan left," Astrid suggested. "Maybe he left with him?"

Ruffnut seemed to think about for a moment before saying, "I didn't think of that."

Astrid knew what that meant. Not 'why didn't I think of that', but 'why would he think of that if I didn't'. Astrid felt sorry for her all over again. "It was probably something that Trader Johan said in the news that made him think of it. You know, when you weren't there."

Ruffnut nodded. "Yeah, maybe that's it."

Astrid sighed heavily. "Look, Ruffnut, there's not much more looking we can do. We can send word to Trader Johan but otherwise there isn't much else we can do."

"You're right," Ruffnut agreed glumly.

Astrid wished Tuffnut were there. Not only would Ruffnut feel better, but Astrid could clock him on the head for making her act so out of character. Ruffnut Thorston was supposed to be a lively girl who liked to blow things up. Not this person who walked around with hunched shoulders (or at least, more hunched then her natural posture) and a smileless face.

Astrid stepped over a fallen tree and asked, "Do you think he would've left a note if he left with Trader Johan?"

Ruffnut shook her head. "Nope. Woulda been too excited to think about leaving a note for anyone."

This depressed state was really starting to grate on Astrid's nerves. "C'mon Ruff, he's probably fine."

"Don't you understand?" Ruffnut exclaimed. "I have no one to blow stuff up with now! Or play pranks with! Or punch for no reason! Or... or... or..."

"Well I don't know about the punching for no reason part but – " Astrid began only to be cut off by Ruffnut saying:

"Really? You'd be my pranking partner?" Ruffnut burst out, grinning the Thorston grin that had been missing for the last few days.

"As long as we don't do anything damaging to the village..." Astrid said, ready to smack herself upside her own head. What was she getting herself into?

"Hah! Nothing that can't be fixed!" Ruffnut grabbed Astrid's hand, the one that wasn't holding her axe, and dragged her the remaining distance to the village.

~o~0~O~0~o~

By the time the sun had passed its peak and begun its downward march Hiccup was seriously regretting his decision to use the first dragon they saw.

The nightmare had blackened Tuffnut's clothes (the dragon had flamed up and Tuffnut had done the smartest thing and jumped off the dragon, dousing the flames in the ocean), burned off most of his hair (leaving the viking with a rather unfortunate haircut), and given him plenty of bruises (that came from a lot of jostling). The two had been growling and yelling at each other ever since the nightmare had come out of the calm Hiccup had put it in. They were so rowdy Hiccup wondered why they were even trying to be stealthy.

All in all, they probably could not have picked a worse dragon to put Tuffnut on.

Tuffnut dubbed the nightmare Helfire, which neither Hiccup nor Toothless saw fit to argue with, and the two managed (after many hours) to fly in a very tense but mostly quiet silence (Helfire was still growling under his breath). Hiccup absently wondered if he should have gone solo... and if he could still go solo?

Unfortunately, no. He couldn't leave Tuffnut alone, he wouldn't be able to get back home because he didn't know the way and mostly because Hiccup just didn't trust Helfire. Hiccup sighed, and Toothless snorted sympathetically.

"I think it's getting colder," Hiccup commented, wishing he'd worn his full body leather armor or at least brought his vest. He hadn't technically needed the armor for this trip (he did now, but he hadn't known that) so he had opted to leave it at home.

Tuffnut snorted. "It's not getting any colder over here if you need heat."

Hiccup glanced over to see Tuffnut holding tight to Helfire's horns and smoke curling out of the dragon's nostrils. "Don't worry too much, this is just temporary, Tuffnut. We're definitely getting you a new dragon."

"Good," Tuffnut said. "Because I'm pretty sure this thing spawned straight from Hel."

Helfire growled and released a spurt of flame into the open air. Hiccup imagined he was saying, _likewise, demon child._

"How far do you think they're going?" Tuffnut asked.

Hiccup shrugged. "No idea. But hopefully distance won't be too much of a problem. The dragons can fly for a long time as long as it doesn't start stretching to a week. I am a little worried about our supplies though. We didn't come prepared for this journey."

"Maybe there'll be an island or two on the way," Tuffnut suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," Hiccup agreed. They fell into silence and Hiccup quickly grew bored. It was kind of nice for a little while, Tuffnut and Helfire were tolerating each other and the Berserker ships ahead didn't notice them. They were hanging back far enough that they should look like a pair of large birds... hopefully.

But eventually Hiccup got tired of thinking about training drills and exercises and decided to strike up a conversation. "So, how are things back on Berk?"

"Huh?" Tuffnut looked over distractedly and Hiccup wondered what kind of destruction he'd been plotting in his head to keep from being bored himself. "Oh, normal. You know, dragon attacks, Astrid punching Snotlout, Mildew complaining, regular stuff."

"Oh?" Hiccup asked, "Nothing's changed a little since I left?"

Tuffnut seemed to understand what he was asking and said, "Well, Gobber hasn't taken on a new apprentice and some people were complaining about him being slower fixing weapons during raids. And people don't have anyone to blame when a raid goes wrong."

Hiccup smiled wryly at that one. "It's good to know I'm missed for something I guess. Is Gobber considering anyone?"

"Cheif doesn't really want any of the warriors to give up their place to learn Blacksmith stuff. He sa – HELFIRE DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" Tuffnut yelled the last bit as Helfire began to dip as inconspicuously as he could downward.

The dragon groaned and righted himself at Toothless's growled command. He puffed a thick plume of smoke to show his disapproval.

"Anyway," Tuffnut continued, righting his helmet which had tipped forward a little, revealing his unburnt dreadlock-remains. "I think he said something about Fishlegs since he isn't realy talented in the dragon fighting department."

"Yeah, he really wasn't," Hiccup said, fondly remembering the huge teen and his stuttering dragon statistics.

The flew for a little while more before Hiccup mused that, "Aesa can probably give you haircut when we get back."

"NO!" Tuffnut objected immediately.

Hiccup did his best to hold in a snicker and said, "It looks _really_ bad, Tuffnut."

"I'm going to grow it back!" Tuffnut proclaimed, a hand protectively covering the blackened ends.

"Are you sure?" Hiccup asked. "Because you never cut your hair once in your whole life and it took that long to grow it to the length it was before."

"I don't wanna look all cute like you," Tuffnut said with his face screwed up in mild disgust. "I wanna kill stuff."

Hiccup tried to decide if he should be affronted by the 'cute' comment or take it as a compliment. He decided to ignore it and instead just said, "You can look cute and still kill stuff. Just look at Toothless!"

Toothless growled defensively at that, and Hiccup knew he was glaring at him.

"Besides," Hiccup continued, "it'll make things easier when we make you a helmet with a visor for your identity's sake. Dreadlocks would make that look really strange."

"I still don't wanna look cute," Tuffnut muttered.

Hiccup smiled and couldn't resist a little good-natured jab. "With a face like yours you don't have to worry about looking cute."

Helfire started quaking like he thought Hiccup had just said the funniest thing in the world, and Tuffnut shouted indignantly, "HEY!"

Hiccup just grinned. This was going to be fun. Assuming, of course, that they survived until their next misadventure.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Astrid dropped face down onto her bed and groaned into her pillow. Why, oh why, had she agreed to be Ruffnut's partner in crime? Even as she bemoaned the attacks to her moral integrity, Astrid had to smile. The other girl had seemed more like herself than she had since she and Tuffnut had started the most serious fight they'd had in a long time. Astrid just hoped no one would suspect her for painting Mildew's house a frankly alarming shade of yellow and dying the sheep's wool grass-green (Ruffnut claimed they were doing a service for that one, saying the sheep would be camouflaged better. Astrid thought the dragons probably had such a keen sense of smell that it wouldn't matter but she didn't say that).

Dragging herself to a sitting position, Astrid tugged off her left boot and thought about the dragons. She hadn't killed one in a raid despite the fact that she had been made a full-fledged warrior a year ago. Astrid pulled off her other boot. Oh she defended herself alright, but it had never come to killing. She had instead kept up the job of fire prevention.

Astrid stood up pulled off her spiked skirt and should guards. Chief Stoick hadn't been too happy about that, he thought they needed every warrior they could get. But Astrid had argued that someone needed to keep the fires from spreading or they'd have to start living in the caves. She also promised to help where she could. Plopping back down on the bed, Astrid heaved a huge sigh.

It was just so _hard_ now. After Hiccup had to go and make things so complicated. That one beautiful flight had opened Astrid's eyes to _so many_ new and wonderful things—like how dragons were kind. He showed her that the sky was a magical place, and that the dragons were being forced into servitude, not stealing because it was fun. Not to mention revealing that he wasn't a complete idiot. Astrid tugged off her headband and lay down on her back.

Why did he have to fly off right after he'd showed her that new world? It was so frustrating. Now her nights were filled with dreams of flying and days of peace. Astrid sorely wished he were here; that his father hadn't driven him off with harsh words and a stubborn hold on the past. Hiccup hadn't technically been banished. Stoick had never made the proclamation, not even after Hiccup had flown off on the nightmare. But it was pretty well understood by everyone on Berk, and probably by Hiccup too, that he was no longer welcome on Berk.

Astrid just hoped he was alive, well, and planning. She had kept his secrets about everything. About Toothless, and subsequently how he was The First. She absently unbraided her hair and wondered if Stoick had connected the dots, or if he thought Hiccup had kept the monstrous nightmare and just worked with The First.

She had also kept quiet about the Queen dragon in the Nest, partially because she didn't want anyone to suspect her of being sympathetic and partially because it wouldn't deter the vikings at all. In fact, some may become more bold, thinking they knew exactly what they were up against. Some vikings were stupid like that. Which is why Astrid hoped Hiccup was planning. After the flight and the revelation of Hiccup's smarts (which in hindsight Astrid could have recognized if she'd really looked) Astrid's respect for him had skyrocketed to an all time high, which wasn't saying much in itself. But now, somehow, Astrid had complete trust in him, more than any other viking.

She knew he wouldn't sit idly by while the queen controlled the other dragons.

And Astrid also knew that he was smart enough and brave enough, with just a enough viking stupidity and stubbornness, to carry out whatever idiotically brilliant plan his mind spawned.

Astrid pulled the blanket over her shoulders and smiled. One day soon they would be free.

Astrid just knew it.

* * *

**So, I'm back, guys. That was a long one. Well, hopefully more action in the next chapter. And I've decided to give Tuff the skrill for now, because I think I can have fun with it and that's the whole point of writing fanfiction (at least for me). If it turns out horribly I can always fall back on Torch. But thank you all for your suggestions! I did think about them all.**

**And don't worry guys, Torch will get used regardless of whether Tuffnut rides him or not. Thanks for reading! Leave a review?**


	5. Dangerous Dragons and Something Serious

**Chapter 5**

**Tuff Works with Dangerous Dragons and Ruff Discovers Something Serious**

"Hey, Astrid!"

Astrid jerked in surprise and spun around with her axe at the ready in her hands. It was only Ruffnut. Relaxing her stance, Astrid straightened and lowered her axe.

Ruffnut laughed, and strolled up beside her. "I wasn't gonna attack you."

Astrid sighed. "One can never be too careful."

Ruffnut snorted. "Yes, yes you can. You can _definitely _be too careful. Speaking of..."

"Oh, here we go," Astrid muttered, but without any sting to it. Ever since Tuffnut had up and disappeared, Astrid had become his substitute. If Ruffnut needed a partner for anything (theft, arson, pranks, etc.), she came to Astrid. Truly, Astrid didn't mind. She enjoyed spending time with Ruffnut and was glad they were such close friends. But sometimes, she just needed a break from the _insanity_.

But Ruffnut just grinned and continued on. "So, Chief is calling a meeting."

"So?" Astrid asked. "My bed is calling my name."

"So," Ruffnut barreled on, though she graced Astrid's comment with a smirk. "We should go."

"I don't think, technically, we are supposed to be included in this meeting, are we?" Astrid said, starting to walk to her house.

"Exactly!" Ruffnut exclaimed, matching her stride, "Tuff and I used to crash meetings all the time."

"Literally crash, or just listen in?" Astrid questioned.

"We only literally crashed a few, and only if they were especially boring," Ruffnut told her. "But mostly we just sneak in and listen to say that we did and leave. Usually they talk about the boring stuff that comes before the action stuff."

"You mean the planning?" Astrid asked, propping up an eyebrow.

"Yeah that," Ruff said, absently flapping her hand. "Anyway, we should do it! It'll be fun!"

Astrid sighed. "Fine, but let me put away my axe."

~o~0~O~0~o~

Sleeping on dragons was a strange experience. At least, it was for Tuffnut who had never slept on a dragon before nor a pleasant dragon to sleep on. It was easy for Hiccup. He just laid back on Toothless and dozed enough to get rest but remained aware enough to flick the tailfin open or closed if Toothless needed him. He was literally flying in his sleep, which Tuffnut had found quite hilarious. He had _not_ find it hilarious when he could only half sleep on Helfire.

Tuffnut made both Hiccup and Toothless promise not to breathe a word of how _exactly_ those few nights tailing the Berserkers went. But at last – _finally_ – they stopped at a huge glacier. Thankfully the time of day was dusk so the dragons were able to sneak up close. Not too close, but on top of the same floating glacier that the Berserkers seemed so concerned with.

The two humans ordered the dragons to stay back while they crawled forward on their bellies to the edge of the glacier. When they finally reached it Hiccup leaned slightly over the side to get a clear view of the sight below in the waning light.

"We're getting close, Chief Dagur," one Berkserker said, holding an ice pick in his hands.

"Well, hurry up," Dagur ordered impatiently.

"Yes, sir," the Berserker replied immediately. "Do you want us to cut it all the way out?"

"Of course," Dagur replied. "Why would we leave it in there? It's might be dead, but if we're lucky the proper restraining tools are available. Now _go!_ If you people don't finish this quick you will be the first I feed to that dragon!"

The Berserker squeaked and rushed off to start hacking away at the ice with a few other Berserkers.

"We have to stop him," Hiccup murmured.

"Wait, I thought we were all for people having dragons and making peace and stuff," Tuffnut whispered back.

Hiccup shook his head. "Not with Dagur. He'll try to use the Skrill against us and I don't think it'll be a pleasant experience for the Skrill either. We have to rescue it and get outta here."

"Okay, sounds fun," Tuffnut agreed readily. "Do you have a plan or are we just gonna bust in there and start blowing stuff up?"

Hiccup scooted away from the edge and sat up. "Good question, Tuff."

Frowning, Hiccup pressed his lips into a thin line and thought. The Berserkers outnumbered the four of them a hundred to one at least, but they did have two powerful dragons. They would need to defend a small area to control the flow of Berserkers, preferably the place below them with the Skrill. They could probably do it and hold their own for a little while. Only...

"I'm just not sure what to do about the Skrill," Hiccup admitted. "It's a very powerful dragon, if the books are anything to go by. It won't be easy to train, or catch in order to train. I'm not even sure it _can_ be trained. Or even remotely tamed. Dagur's taking a big risk here."

"Maybe we can release the Skrill and just let it go?" Tuffnut thought about it for a moment before his whole face lit up. "Oooh! Could we sink the entire glacier!?"

Before Hiccup could formulate the proper response to that, he heard the twang of an arrow and one pierced the ice with a _crunch_ dangerously close to Hiccup's hand.

Hiccup jumped and gasped, jerking his hand close to him even though the arrow had already landed.

"COME ON, HICCUP!" Dagur shouted. "I KNOW IT'S YOU UP THERE!"

"Looks like we're just going to have to wing it," Hiccup said, a little apprehensive, but he knew everything always worked out. "Toothless!"

Both dragons bounded over and Hiccup wasted no time in mounting Toothless. Tuffnut followed a bit more slowly on Helfire.

"Stay behind me," Hiccup ordered Tuffnut and then gripped the saddle handle as Toothless leaped off the glacier and glided expertly down. He landed between Dagur and the Skrill.

"Ah, Hiccup," Dagur greeted with a malicious grin. "I'd hoped you would show up, we have a bit of unfinished business."

"I don't know about that, Dagur," Hiccup said, staying firmly seated on Toothless. "My team and I defeated you and your armada, that sounds pretty finished to me."

Dagur scowled deeply, obviously hating to be reminded of that defeat. Reaching up he unsheathed the sword from his back and growled, "You got lucky. But you won't this time."

Hiccup made a show of ignoring Dagur's sword and looking behind him. "But I don't see you're armada, Dagur," Hiccup observed with fake innocence. "Are you sure you can make me that sort of promise?"

Dagur scowled even more than before. "And looks like you only have one of your little dragon riders, seems were both down."

Well, it was kind of hard to argue with that. But Hiccup plowed forward. "Alright, have it your way, Dagur. Just know we can end this peacefully and quit this useless fighting."

Dagur glanced behind Hiccup, probably at the Skrill but Hiccup didn't dare turn his back on Dagur. "You think I'll just let you take the Skrill?"

Dagur laughed insanely and twirled his sword in his hand.

With a bit more bravado than he felt Hiccup said, "I don't see how you can stop me."'

Angrily raising his sword, Dagur cried, "ATTAAAAAAAACCCKKK!"

The Berserkers obeyed.

~o~0~O~0~o~

When Ruffnut had said 'sneak in on the meeting' Astrid had assumed they would hide behind a few crates or tables and then sneak out again. She most definitely did _not_ expect to be up in the rafters. It was way scarier than spinning through the air on the back of an offended Night Fury...

Okay, maybe not as scary as that, but close. The boards were creaky, and Astrid felt like they were gong to crack and drop Astrid and Ruffnut in the middle of the meeting. But Ruffnut was confident in the strength of the rafters and tiptoed across them with perfect balance and ease. Astrid was admittedly a little jealous of her friend's fearlessness as she edged slowly after her.

Ruffnut stopped halfway across the room and turned around. She laid down on her stomach and gripped the side of the rafter with both hands. Carefully and slowly Astrid copied her so that the two of them had their heads together as they watched the vikings assemble below. They carried on conversations that were too quiet for Astrid to hear.

"Will we hear them up here?" Astrid asked quietly. "I can't tell what anyone's saying."

"We will when Chief Stoick starts talking," Ruffnut assured her in a whisper.

Sure enough, the Chief stepped up and raised his hands and called for silence. When he spoke, his voice reverberated against the walls and filled the whole hall. To his right Gobber leaned relaxed on the edge of the oval fire pit. On Stoick's left stood Spitelout, his brother. Continuing around the pit in a sort-of half circle were Phlegma the Fierce (Astrid's mother), Hoark the Haggard, and Snotlout.

Perhaps Snoutlout's presence should be explained. With the dragon attacks only getting worse and more frequent, Gobber and Stoick had decided to create a band of young, strong vikings who were constantly working together to find more effective ways of killing dragons. Snotlout, as the future chief of the Hooligans, had been chosen to lead them. Fishlegs was second-in-command so that the group didn't look like a bunch of fools. The large teen had become exceptionally talented at presenting his ideas as if they were Snotlout's. It was mostly composed of a bunch of boys; Wartihog, Speedifist, Dogsbreath, and a few more names Astrid couldn't recall.

She and Ruffnut weren't part of it. They could be, but they declined. But they promised they would work together as well as keeping and eye on the fires, so the chief wasn't too mad at them for declining. Snotlout was constantly offering them a "prestigious position" though.

Anyway, as leader of their special dragon fighting force, Snotlout was allowed to join the special meetings.

"As you all know," Stoick began in a booming voice. "The dragon raids have been getting worse and we've had no luck finding the nest."

Everyone nodded a bit despondently, though still strong (and stubborn).

"Well we've just received word from the Meathead tribe, they think they may be close to finding a way into the nest."

Astrid thought everyone below looked surprised, though it was hard to tell from this height. Ruffnut grinned.

"Not a boring meeting!" she whispered happily.

Astrid was getting more interested by the second.

"They aren't 100% sure about it though," Stoick continued. "But they do plan on starting a search in a few weeks and they have requested assistance from all the tribes to end the dragon threat."

"We'll have a better chance than just sailing aimlessly through that fog," Phlegma pointed out.

Everyone around the circle nodded in agreement.

"Can we trust the Meatheads?" Hoark questioned.

"They haven't crossed us in the past," Stoick said.

"Or anyone else, for that matter," Gobber added.

"We would be able to take on the dragons better with more numbers," Spitelout said. "Less deaths than if we did it on our own."

Phlegma nodded. "Not to mention that we have no idea how many dragons there actually are in the Nest."

"Good," Stoick said. "It's decided then, we'll join the Meatheads. I'll inform them immediately."

Ruffnut and Astrid stayed perfectly still while the Hooligan council adjourned and stayed quiet until they had left. Then they both carefully sat up on the rafters.

"Cool," Ruffnut said. "I guess we'll be finding the dragons soon and ending the war."

Astrid didn't reply. She knew the vikings were doomed. They had _no idea_ what they were up against in the nest. All she could think was, _I need to warn Hiccup._

~o~0~O~0~o~

Tuffnut was rather impressed by Hiccup.

First he made friends with the Monstrous Nightmare he was supposed to kill, then he flew off on it. Then he became a veritable legend in the Barbaric Archipelago with his Night Fury buddy. And now he would charge off to face Berserkers and he was seemingly unafraid of taunting them.

All in all Tuffnut wished very much that he had made friends with Hiccup earlier. He was so cool! But back to the situation at hand. Hiccup was facing off the Berserker fleet and Dagur with Toothless. So Tuffnut thought it was best if he and Helfire took care of the Berserkers guarding the Skrill (while simultaneously trying to free it from the ice).

Sliding off Helfire's neck, Tuffnut turned to whisper in the Nightmare's ear. He wasn't entirely sure this would work but it had with Snotlout once and the dragon rather reminded him of the now-heir of Berk. "Okay Helfire, these stupid Berserkers don't have _any_ respect for the great power of the Monstrous Nightmares, and they really need to be taught a lesson. So show them how awesome you are and make them regret looking down on you, Mighty Dragon!"

Miraculously, it worked. Helfire's ego flared up in the fires of indignation and he roared at the Berserkers. One of them (obviously the smartest of the group) dropped his ice pick and ran for the row-boat. Two more stood frozen in fear, and the last two (the stupidest of the group) threw down their picks and drew their axes.

Tuffnut just crossed his arms and enjoyed the show. Helfire lunged forward and shot a spurt of fire at the two motionless vikings. One squeaked and bolted after the smart Berserker. The other's clothes caught fire and he ran for the ocean. Helfire turned his attention to the two vikings with axes ready and rose up on his hind legs. Towering over the two Berserkers, Helfire glared fiercely down at them. Both of the idiots raised their axes and charged Helfire, a war cry springing from their lungs.

Helfire snorted in derision and hooked one by the back of his vest with his fang and flung him back towards the Skrill. The other viking Helfire snatched up with his claw and tossed him in the air. When the Berserker reached the zenith of his flight, Helfire loosed a well-timed flame and it caught him square in the chest.

The Berserker fell to the ground screaming and he, too, dashed after the smart viking. The fifth and final Berserker got up dazedly from where he'd been thrown into the wall of ice. When he saw Helfire turn his gaze onto him the Berserker squeaked and ran for his life. Helfire puffed out his chest and looked rather smug to have taught those puny vikings some respect.

Tuffnut dashed past the Nightmare to the now unguarded Skrill. The ice had been chipped away enough that only a thin layer of ice separated the Skrill from the rest of the world. Then one of Helfire's blasts of fire must have hit it head on because now the Skrill's head was free. And it was blinking.

"Uh... hi there, dragon," Tuffnut greeted tentatively.

The Skrill's yellow slit-pupil eyes snapped to Tuffnut and stayed there. Tuffnut gulped. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Hiccup and Toothless were having a hard time now that the Berserker's ships had come to Dagur's aid.

"Alright, Skrill," Tuffnut said, looking back at the dragon's unnerving yellow eyes. "I'm gonna make a deal with you. See those ships? They're full of bad guys that want to hurt me and you. If you'll rain down some epic destruction on them I'll let you out."

The Skrill just stared at him.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes," Tuffnut decided, since there wasn't much else he could do. "Helfire! Come over here and melt this ice!"

Helfire turned and gave him a heavy-lidded look like, _why would I do what you tell me, puny-human-who-is-beneath-my-mighty-power?_

Tuffnut sighed heavily. "Oh, for Thor'ssake!"

Mustering his best announcing voice, Tuffnut shouted, "O Great and Powerful Mounstrous Nightmare Helfire! Out of great respect for your amazingness please blast this ice with your really hot fire!"

Helfire sniffed self-importantly but lowered his head and breathed a string of flame at the Skrill. Tuffnut had to dive out of the way since Helfire didn't deign to give him time to move. Tuffnut stayed down as the Skrill burst from the ice and flew straight up into the sky.

Shooting to his feet, Tuffnut pointed to the Berserkers who were trying to overwhelm Hiccup and Toothless and shouted to Helfire. "Look, Mighty Helfire! More disrespecters!"

Helfire's jaw dropped and his eyes widened a little like he couldn't believe there were _more_ people who didn't recognize his greatness. The Monstrous Nightmare whirled around and joined Hiccup and Toothless in the fighting, intent on putting these vikings in their proper place beneath him.

Satisfied, Tuffnut looked around for the Skrill. Up above it was cloudy and the sun had almost completely set so he couldn't spot it. Was it even still there? Suddenly a bolt of lightning, thin and weak as it was, struck one of the three Berserker ships in the mast. The wood cracked and burned, falling with a _thump_ on the rest of the ship. Another bolt hit the side of a second ship.

"WOOOH! YEAH!" Tuffnut cheered up at the Skrill. "YOU GO!"

Then the Skrill swooped down and dragged it's claws across the third ship's mast. The Berserkers shouted orders and tried to see the Skrill to fight back. Tuffnut grinned. They weren't going to find it.

"Give it up, Dagur!" Hiccup shouted. "You aren't getting the Skrill! It's gone!"

Tuffnut inched closer to the battle, very aware that he was not armed. He saw Dagur grin insanely (not like the Thorston grin, but really, actually insane) at something past Tuffnut.

"No, it's not," he said evilly.

Tuffnut whirled around to see he Skrill had landed behind him. Tuffnut thought the dragon looked a little weak, but he couldn't really blame it. It had just been unfrozen from a Thor-knows-how-long sleep and done some flying and shooting as soon as it came out.

Many of the Berserkers were falling back to the ships and trying to get away from Helfire's rampage. Although, the dragon seemed to be toying with them, going for respect rather than death, but it was working just fine all the same. But Dagur fought harder, trying and failing to get past Toothless. The Night Fury was having a hard time actually hitting Dagur though. The Berserker chief was very quick and Toothless always needed a second to build up his flame. Plus a few Berserkers were trying to get by at the same time and Toothless had to divide his attention. Hiccup was helping of course. He had a cross-bow that he was surprisingly good at aiming it. He was shooting the Berserkers who tried to slip past while Toothless was busy with Dagur.

Tuffnut turned from the battle and faced the Skrill. The dragon looked at him with curious eyes. Tuffnut wondered why it had come back. Gratitude? He had no idea. But he decided to approach. He took a slow, small step toward the dragon, and when it didn't move he took another. Then he realized he had no idea how to befriend a dragon like Hiccup had. Tuffnut racked his brain for all the times he'd seen Hiccup with dragons. The first time, with the Nightmare in the kill ring back on Berk, Hiccup had talked softly to the dragon and removed all his weapons. While they were searching the Dragon Islands for a dragon for him, Hiccup had generally just been friendly with all the dragons. Tuffnut had a sneaking suspicion that Hiccup just had a special way with dragons the _no one_ else had, but it couldn't hurt to give it a shot.

Well it could, but that's besides the point. Tuffnut didn't have any weapons so he raised his hands, palms open, to show that. He edged slowly forward again and started talking in the same calm, quiet voice Hiccup had done.

"Um... hi, Skrill. That was pretty awesome what you did back there. Blowing up all those ships. They totally deserved it. You were awesome."

The dragon cocked his head like he was listening and stayed still while Tuffnut approached. Tuffnut briefly wondered if this dragon was as susceptible to flattery as Helfire was.

"You are one of the coolest dragons ever," Tuffnut continued, and the Skrill straightened up a little. "That lightning thing you do is really awesome. And destructive. Destruction is awesome, and you're really good at it."

At that the Skrill took a slow, tentative step forward.

"You like destruction?" Tuffnut asked, a grin forming on his face. "I like it too."

Tuffnut stopped, now two feet away from the Skrill, and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end from being so close to the dragon. "Um, so, look, dragon. See those vikings? They're really bad, and want to hurt you, me and my friend don't want that."

Very slowly Tuffnut reached his hand forward, but the Skrill snarled at him and took a little step back. Tuffnut froze, unsure of what to do next. He looked over his shoulder and saw Hiccup and Toothless were having some trouble with the Berserkers. Turning back to the Skrill, Tuffnut remembered the Nightmare in the kill ring.

"See my friends over there?" Tuffnut asked, pointing back to Hiccup and Toothless. "They're viking and dragon but their best friends. I'm like him, I like dragons. Not like other vikings."

He stretched his hand forward, and the Skrill growled again, though it did not take a step back. Tuffnut only had one more idea, but he decided to go ahead and use it. He reached up and lifted his helmet off his head, hoping the dragon wouldn't be offended by bad haircuts. Looking one more time over his shoulder, Tuffnut threw his helmet to the ground and said, "I'm not like them."

The Skrill looked at the helmet, then back up at Tuffnut. It's pupils had widened slightly, and Tuffnut remembered seeing Toothless's pupils get wide like that when he looked at Hiccup. Taking that as a positive sign, Tuffnut said, "We really need to get you out of here, it's not safe. Will you come?"

The Skrill leaned forward and sniffed Tuffnut's outstretched hand. Cautiously Tuffnut placed his hand on the Skrill's snout. It didn't growl. It didn't pull back. The skin soft and rubbery, not like Helfire's or Toothless's. Moving to its side Tuffnut put his other hand on the Skrill. Both hands were shaking. What if something went wrong? He wasn't Hiccup, what if he'd done something wrong? Could he really get on this dragon and survive?

Then the Skrill made a rumbling sound that sounded like purring. Did dragons purr? Tuffnut didn't know, but the sound filled him with comfort and his hands stopped shaking. He pulled himself up and onto the Skrill's shoulders.

"Okay," Tuffnut breathed, his heart fluttering in his chest, from excitement or fear he didn't know. "Let's go."

The Skrill shot into the air and Tuffnut wrapped his arms and legs tightly around the Skrill's neck to stay on. He was too scared to scream. Finally the Skrill leveled out and Tuffnut yelled down.

"HICCUP! COME ON!"

"TUFFNUT?!" came the disbelieving shout.

In a few seconds Hiccup was in the air next to him on Toothless. Both viking and Night Fury looked at him and the Skrill with astonished faces. Tuffnut shrugged as much as he could without loosening his grip on the Skrill.

Leaning over a little (not very much), Tuffnut called down again, "HELFIRE! THE HUMANS HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THEIR LESSON! LET'S GO, MIGHTY DRAGON!"

Helfire came up into the air behind them, and Hiccup shook his head, a smile on his face. "Let's get out of here, you can explain later, Tuff."

~o~0~O~0~o~

Astrid pounded on Ruffnut's door _again_. She was starting to learn that the other girl was _not_ a morning person.

Finally, the door swung open to reveal Ruffnut. She was missing her brown jacket and her braids were sloppy. On top of the she had forgotten the two braids that usually stuck out the side of her head and she only had one shoe on.

"Wha – ?" was the only semi-intelligible thing that came out of her mouth.

Astrid rolled her eyes, smiling. Just to be irritating (Ruff was rubbing off on her, and not in a good way), Astrid grinned big and said in her most cheery voice, "Good morning, Ruff!"

The other girl groaned. "Why are you here?"

"Trader Johan is coming today, remember?" Astrid said.

Ruffnut jolted and stood up straight. "Oh yeah!"

Great, now they were back to their normal dynamic of calm and insane instead of cheery and droopy. Ruffnut opened her door the rest of the way to let Astrid in and started looking for her other boot.

"Agh! Where did I put it!" Ruffnut exclaimed, twirling around wildly.

Astrid spotted it sitting on the table in the middle of the room, in plain sight, and tried not to laugh. She covered her mouth with her hand and waited for Ruffnut to see it. After two minutes of not seeing it, Astrid took pity on her.

"It's on the table," she said at last.

"No it's – " Ruffnut glared at the boot. "Oh."

Astrid snickered quietly while Ruffnut tugged on the other boot and she grabbed her brown jacket from the chair beside her. She decided to spare Ruffnut a little more frustrated searching and handed it to her.

The two made their way down to the docks, Ruffnut to ask about her brother and Astrid to support her. But she also hoped to get her letter to Hiccup. He needed to know about the search for the nest. No one would believe her about a mountain sized dragon that would kill them all, and Astrid would rather not explain how she knew that. It was up to Hiccup. Hopefully he and Toothless could do something about it. Either defeat the dragon before the vikings found the Nest or stop them altogether. Something just needed to be done, and Astrid was fresh out of ideas.

The two girls headed down to the docks and found that Trader Johan had not yet arrived. But if past performance was any indicator, he'd be there soon.

"Hey, Astrid!"

Astrid groaned. Ruffnut grimaced sympathetically.

"What do you want, Snotlout?" Astrid said, her teeth gritted as she turned to face him.

"So I was thinking," Snotlout began as he swaggered (or tried to) over. "You know how you've been doing the whole fire brigade thing?"

"Yeah," Astrid responded, already knowing where this was going.

"Well, I think you would be much better suited for the dragon-fighters," Snotlout announced, trying to sound grand and impressive. The key word there being 'trying'.

Astrid knew that deep down buried underneath all that ego and snobbishness and general unpleasantness, Snotlout had a good heart. Albiet a _very, very_ deeply buried good heart that you didn't ever really see. But Astrid was having a hard time remembering that when all she wanted to do was punch him and scream at him to leave her alone.

"Snotlout," Astrid said, sighing to hopefully relieve some of the tension in her body and voice. "I've already told you. The fire – "

"Oh look!" Ruffnutt shouted, effectively cutting Astrid off. "It's Trader Johan's ship!"

Ruffnut grabbed Astrid's hand and dragged her down the ramps toward the dock. Astrid made a mental note to thank her later for the rescue. Even though it would be another fifteen minutes to wait before the trader actually made it to the docks and who knows how long until they could talk to him privately, Astrid and Ruffnut waited on the edge of the docks. But Astrid didn't mind. Anything but turning Snotlout down _again._

It turned out to be several hours before they got a moment alone with Trader Johan but there was plenty to do while they waited, looking through the trader's many wares. But when they finally did, Ruffnut talked to him first.

"Trader Johan," she began when he had finished deliver the news and the rest of the visitors had departed. "I wanted to asked you about something."

"Of course, Ruffnut," Johan agreed. "What is it?"

"It's about my brother," Ruffnut said.

"Ah, Tuffnut," was all Johan said.

Ruffnut nodded, and Astrid continued saying, "Well, we can't find him here and we were just wondering if you've seen him."

"Or if, you know," Ruffnut said, "he happened to take a ride with you."

The trader smiled kindly. "Don't worry, Ruffnut. Tuffnut's fine. I don't imagine he would like it if I told you where he went so I won't but as far as I know, he's fine."

Astrid could see the some of the tension that had been consistently gripping Ruffnut release from her shoulders and she released a relieved exhale.

"When did you last see him?" Astrid asked.

"Ah a couple of weeks, lassie," Johan said. "I'm not really sure exactly."

The two girls nodded, and Ruffnut said, "At least we know he's not here anymore."

Then she thanked the trader and trudged off the boat.

"Oh, before I go," Astrid said, pulling her letter from her belt. "Do you know of any way of reaching the dragon riders?"

Johan raised an eyebrow. "And why, might I ask, would you want to reach the dragon riders?"

Astrid felt her face heat up a little but she kept her shoulders straight and her chin up. "It's important. Really important. Peoples lives are at stake."

Johan nodded. "Alright then, I believe you, Astrid. You've always been a trustworthy lass."

Astrid gave him a relieved smile and handed him the letter. "This needs to get to The First as soon as possible."

"Consider it done, Astrid," Johan said kindly, taking the letter.

Now hopefully Hiccup could do something about it.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Hiccup leaned back against Toothless, crossed his legs, and thought about how all his friends were the weirdest people in the Barbaric Archipelago. And half of them seemed to have a rather unhealthy (in Hiccup's opinion) obsession with naming things. It had been over a week since Hiccup and Tuffnut had returned from the skirmish with the Berserkers, a Monstrous Nightmare and a Skrill in tow, and the naming war had been going strong since then. Hiccup had thought that once the island was finally named (it only took them a year), that the war would be over. Not so.

Hiccup sighed and tried to tune them out. He looked to his left and saw Helfire dozing comfortably on a rock, heating in the sun. Hiccup hadn't though the Nightmare would stick around but, for whatever reason (Hiccup had no idea), the dragon had deigned to stay.

"How about Spark?"

"Striker?"

"Bolt?"

"Lightning?"

"Agh! Guys! You have horrible ideas!"

Hiccup smirked and looked over at Tuffnut who was standing, and scowling, next to the Skrill while Hall and Lodin threw suggestions at him. Hiccup cocked his head, still hardly believing that Tuffnut had befriended the supposedly untamable dragon. On top of that he was still having a hard time believing what Tuffnut had said afterwards, about how he had only done things he'd seen Hiccup do. Either Tuffnut was more humble than Hiccup had ever thought or the other teen was truly shaken up (or surprised, or terrified, or any number of things) that he truly meant what he said. Both ways seemed so implausible.

"Oh, how about Whitefire?" Lodin said.

Tuffnut crossed his arms. "I am not listening to either of you. And you can't make me. _I_ get to name him. I won't use any of your names."

"How about Sparky?" Hall suggested, completely ignoring Tuffnut's last sentence.

The Skrill growled.

Hiccup thought the Skrill might be one of the smarter species, like Night Furies, that truly understood what was going on. Clearly the dragon was not pleased with the name "Sparky." Hiccup didn't blame him.

"Crackle?"

The Skrill whined and nudged Tuffnut.

"Stop it," Tuffnut ordered. "You're gonna make him cry from sheer horrible ideas."

"Skrillfire?" Lodin said.

Tuffnut grimaced. "Now you're gonna make _me_ cry."

Hiccup snorted – a habit he was picking up from Toothless – and looked at his dragon. "Do you think they'll ever quit?"

Toothless gave a snort of his own and shook his head.

Hiccup laughed. "Yeah, I think you're right, bud. They're just always going to find something that needs to be named and fight over it."

Toothless nodded sadly and looked over to their right. Hiccup followed his gaze and saw young Hanna playing with her dragon. It was a Timberjack. The dragon was a bit on the small side for his breed but that didn't mean he was small for a dragon. In fact, the Timberjack – Cutter – was probably the biggest dragon on the island, bigger even than the Nightmares.

Hiccup realized what Toothless was saying and looked fearfully into his eyes. "You're absolutely right, Toothless. I hope they don't corrupt Hanna either."

Hiccup and Toothless were both rather fond of the little twelve year old addition to the dragon riders. She was feisty, adorable, and loved Toothless. Hiccup thought she stroked his ego a bit _too_ much, but Toothless had no objections to her flattery. But she was still twelve and cute so Hiccup couldn't bring himself to tell her off.

"That's his name!" Tuffnut suddenly cried, drawing Hiccup's attention back. "Staticzapboom!"

Hiccup frowned. That was probably one of the dumbest names he'd ever heard for a dragon. "You're kidding, right?"

"What do you think?" Tuffnut asked his dragon. The Skrill looked up at Tuffnut and did a happy little wiggle thing with its body, eyes bright and happy.

He wasn't kidding.

"Seriously?" Hiccup managed to choke out.

Tuffnut looked over at him with narrowed eyes. "You're one to talk. You named your dragon '_Toothless_'."

Hiccup glanced at the Night Fury and the dragon gave a shrug. Hiccup had to agree. Tuffnut kind of had a point there. "Alright, but just know, I am not going to call him that all the time. His name's going to get shortened to 'Static'."

Tuffnut shrugged. "Then you'll be missing out on the full awesomeness and destructiveness of his name."

Hiccup shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. "Yep, Toothless. We have the weirdest friends in the whole of the Barbaric Archipelago."

Toothless huffed and rested his head on the ground. Hiccup knew what he was saying and he wholeheartedly agreed. _Yeah, but you wouldn't trade them for the world._

* * *

**WOW! Almost 6000 words! This chapter got a little out of hand. Sorry about that. Snotlout threw me a bone, and I started chewing on it, and then I got attached, and now it'll be important later on, so... yeah, blame Snotlout for the delay. And while you're at it blame Tuffnut for making it so long.**

**Don't forget to review! (I promise, I'm trying to do better about responding to reviews. I'm bad like that) Although favorites make me just as happy! (Well close. Not as much, but they do make me really happy).**

**And to the guest who wanted cookies, (::) (::) (::) Of _course_ you can have cookies! (::) (::) (::)**


	6. Getting Down to Business

**Chapter 6**

**Getting Down to Business**

"Alright, everyone, great job. We're done."

Hiccup rolled his shoulders a little as he watched his little group of dragon riders took off from the sea stack and headed back home. They had really only being practicing intensely for about six months, Hiccup thought, rocking back on his heels, depending on when they joined. Minus the big chunk of time taken out for their little skirmish with Dagur and the recovery time they'd needed. All in all, these viking outcasts (not Outcasts), were coming along fantastically with their dragons. Even though none them were naturals at dragon flying like Hiccup was, they made up for it with hard work. Hiccup was insanely proud of them.

Well, not all of them lacked natural talent. Hiccup looked over to the last dragon-viking pair and took a few meandering steps toward them. Tuffnut was rubbing furiously at his dragon's skin right under his wing. Static (Hiccup refused to call him Staticzapboom) was laying on the ground, one leg jerking like a dog, enjoying the attention. Hiccup couldn't figure exactly _why_ the skin under the Skrill's wing was its sweet spot, it just was.

"You guys up for a little extra flying?" Hiccup asked, grinning as the pair stopped and Static immediately perked up at the word 'flying'.

Toothless was also _very_ well acquainted with that word. He jolted from his spot where he lounged at the edge of the sea stack and started leaping in circles around Hiccup. A very obvious _YES YES YES! FLYING!_

Hiccup laughed at his best friend's antics and glanced over at Tuffnut and Static. "Are you guys coming?"

"Yes!" Tuffnut exclaimed, jumping up onto Static's back and hooking his harness to the rubber saddle. The saddle was a little crude as Hiccup and Drott had scraped it together in one night (although crude for Hiccup was still fairly well-made) so Tuff could begin flying right away. The rubber would hopefully protect Tuffnut if Static spontaneously decided to shoot lightning. That had yet to happen.

Static took two bounding leaps and jumped off the sea stacks into flight. Hiccup got onto Toothless's back, the dragon impatiently stamping his feet. The dragon snorted when Hiccup had _finally_ strapped himself in, and shot straight up into the sky. The two flew hundreds of feet through the clouds until Toothless decided they were high enough. Hiccup grinned and gripped his handles in anticipation. He knew what was coming.

Toothless tucked his wings against his body so tightly that the tips pushed against Hiccup's legs. The dragon tilted downward, and Hiccup pressed himself as flat as he possibly could against Toothless's neck. Then the fell down. Straight down. Hiccup whooped in exhilaration as he stomach flew into his chest at the sudden drop in height. They zoomed toward the ocean, getting closer and closer to the water. Hiccup used to scream in fear when Toothless did this. Sure, he trusted Toothless with his life but it was still _scary._ But not anymore.

"YEEEEEEAAAAAAH!" Hiccup yelled, laughing gleefully.

Toothless opened his wings ever-so-slightly to slow and tilt their descent, otherwise Toothless's wings would be ripped off when he stopped. At the last possible second Toothless snapped his wings the rest of the way out and they flattened out, Toothless's claw tips tickling the top of the sea. But their momentum was barely hindered by their change of direction. They streaked across the water at tear-inducing speeds, leaving a spray of water in their wake.

"SHOW OFFS!" Tuffnut shouted from above.

Hiccup and Toothless only laughed. Toothless climbed up until he was gliding next to Static.

"How's the saddle working for you?" Hiccup asked, eyeing the contraption critically.

"Good," Tuffnut said. "It feels a little loose, but other than that I think it's fine."

"Hmm, I can think of a few adjustments but they can wait," Hiccup said. "Until then, you up for a little follow the leader?"

"You're on," Tuffnut said. "I think I saw a storm that way."

"Nothing too dangerous, Tuff," Hiccup warned. "We don't want you dieing."

"Please," Tuffnut snorted. "Dangerous is my middle name. Literally. Besides, shouldn't we test this saddle out on our own time instead of in battle."

Hiccup sighed and muttered to Toothless. "I hate it when he says something logical."

"You've been a negative influence," Tuffnut quipped cheerfully. "Come on, we'll race you."

Static whirled around and headed for the horizon that was tinted dark gray. Hiccup was pretty sure Static also knew the word 'race' because the Skrill was already zooming across the ocean.

Toothless growled indignantly, _Not a fair start!_ and flew after them. The two caught up after a minute and Toothless passed Static. The Skrill growled playfully at them and pushed forward, trying to pass Toothless. But the Night Fury just laughed throatily at the other dragon. The Skrill was fast for sure, and could nearly keep up with Toothless. However, Hiccup didn't think he could ever outfly Toothless unless he was in the lightning. Even then it would probably be close.

Although Hiccup was only guessing. He'd never actually seen Static fly through a storm yet. Looked like they were about to find out.

Toothless and Hiccup pulled farther ahead, the dragon basking in his victory and Hiccup in his speed. He had his helmet on—the new design with a visor—but the wind still bit at his face through the eye holes, but it wasn't as bad as it used to be. In fact, Hiccup thought it was perfect. Just enough to remind him he was flying, on a Night Fury at that, but not so much as to annoy him.

When they finally reached the storm Tuffnut took the role of leader and they frolicked around the edge of the storm, getting splattered with rain but not yet in danger of being hit by lightning. Hiccup eyed the clouds and disliked the idea of flying through with all the metal he and Toothless were wearing. It would be really nice if there was a way to protect themselves against the lightning. But, unfortunately, Hiccup didn't know it.

"Let's go through!" Tuffnut 'Dangerous' Thorston shouted.

Hiccup eyed the frequent cracks of lightning splitting through the center of thick storm clouds and said, "Are you nuts!?"

Tuffnut gave him a manic grin, and Hiccup remembered who he was talking to. The next few minutes were without a doubt the most hair-raising (pun intended) of his life. Tuffnut and Static dove through the storm, not bothering to even try avoiding the bolts of lightning. Each time the Skrill was hit Hiccup's stomach flipped, afraid that Tuffnut would be fried to a crisp. But the rubber saddle did the job as far as Hiccup could tell. In addition to that fear was the one that the lightning would strike him and Toothless. But once again, his fears remained unproven, as the lightning seemed to be satisfied with the Skrill.

Hiccup wasn't sure how long it had been when he finally began to coax Tuffnut and Static out of the storm, but it definitely wasn't the short few minutes he had originally thought. By the time they were headed back to the Wingback Isles (with Tuffnut whooping happily all the way), the sun was just beginning its downward descent. Hiccup's stomach grumbled, reminding him he'd missed breakfast and it was past lunch time.

"That was awesome!" Tuffnut shouted.

"You mean almost dying?" Hiccup questioned sardonically while inside his heart was racing with excitement that still hadn't died down. Hiccup was the last person to admit how high he got off stupid stunts. Toothless was probably the only one who really knew.

"Oh, lighten up," Tuffnut said, laughing and patting Static on the shoulders. "Be a little reckless and destructive once and a while!"

Hiccup snorted. "Were you paying attention during the dragon raids?"

"That's true," Tuffnut chuckled. "You were very destructive. But you haven't done anything like that recently!"

Toothless snorted in disagreement, and Hiccup reflexively flicked his 'ear' plate.

"I just flew through a lightning storm with you—oh _Thor!_"

Tuffnut looked up at Hiccup who was laughing so hard he was struggling to breath. "What?"

Hiccup gasped a little, trying to respond but couldn't over his laughter.

Tuffnut was just plain confused. He glance at Static but the Skrill didn't have any answers. Tuffnut crossed his arms and waited impatiently for Hiccup to settle down.

"You're hair," Hiccup finally said, still giggling.

Tuffnut wasn't wearing his helmet because, apparently, lightning dragon and metal didn't go together very well. But still... "Look, I know you don't like my haircut – "

" – hair_burn_ – "

"But I'm _not _going to let Aesa cut it short. I _will _grow it back out," Tuffnut proclaimed.

"While I still disagree," Hiccup said, smiling. "That's not what I meant. Static was a good name choice."

With that Hiccup and Toothless sped up to quickly clear the remaining distance to their island.

Tuffnut frowned and patted his hair and realized why Hiccup had laughed. All of his hair, even the huge (and, as Hiccup put it, unfortunate) clumps of hair were all sticking _straight_ out. Tuffnut scowled. Okay, so maybe Aesa should cut it short. Much shorter. Otherwise he was going to look like a stupid, harmless idiot instead of a crazy, dangerous, viking, dragon rider.

"I don't suppose you could turn down the hair-raising thing, Staticzapboom?" Tuffnut asked hopefully.

Static snorted, which Tuffnut took for a no.

Sighing, Tuffnut accepted his fate. "Oh well, I tried."

A minute later the two landed and saw that, apparently, Hiccup had already called over everyone to see Tuffnut's hair. Giggles went all around.

"Wow, real mature, _Chief Hiccup,_" Tuffnut said sarcastically. Wait, sarcastically? Hiccup was rubbing off on him and it'd barely been three weeks!

Hiccup scowled, like he always did with his 'title' but quickly cheered up again. "Hey, everyone needs a laugh every now and again, Tuff."

Tuffnut sighed and decided he may as well get it over with now. Facing Aesa, he managed to ground out two words. Two words filled with pain and defeat, but they needed to be said.

"Cut it."

Everyone stifled giggles and grins, but Aesa managed to take up a sympathetic expression. Although, Tuffnut was sure she was still at least chuckling on the inside. And on the inside, he admitted that it _was_ kind of funny. However, he kept a scowl permanently fixed on his face as he followed Aesa to their 'Great Hall' (_another_ thing they needed to name, since it wasn't really a great hall, but they did more than just eat there. Nonetheless, Hiccup seemed mortally against naming much of anything. He always got really irritated when people *coughHallandLodincough* brought up naming something else). He needed to keep up appearance, at the very least out of respect for his lost dreadlocks. Which _used_ to be a thing of awesomeness.

Alas, Tuffnut sighed as Aesa sat him down on a stool and took the scissors from Tofa's outstretched hand. The dreads probably would've been just as susceptible to the static that made his choppier hair stand on end, but it was still sad to let go of his dream of having them back.

It had only been a matter of a few minutes when it was all over. Aesa walked around in front of him and examined her handiwork. She snipped a couple of adjustments, before stepping back and nodding.

"Good," Tofa said with a little chuckle. "Now you look less like an idiot, and more like a handsome dragon warrior."

"Though not as handsome as The First dragon warrior," Aesa put in, elbowing Tofa with what Tuffnut immediately dubbed as The Girl Grin.

He felt his jaw drop open and he blurted, "You think _Hiccup_ is hot?"

Both girls looked at him like they'd forgotten he was there, and then they shared a Girl Look.

"He's just kind of adorable," Tofa admitted, somehow looking sheepish and matter-of-fact at the same time.

"But I thought..." Tuffnut stuttered a moment before he could form the correct words. "Don't girls like big, tall, _muscly_ men?"

Aesa and Tofa both giggled and shared another Girl Grin.

"Big and tall can be nice," Aesa explained slowly, like she was talking to a small child, "but only if a guy is handsome."

"And who's to say Hiccup _doesn't_ have muscles?" Tofa added, grinning teasingly at him. "Riding a dragon is hard work, you know, not to mention a Night Fury."

For a moment, Tuffnut sat completely still, his brain vainly trying to wrap his mind around the concept of _girls_ liking _Hiccup_. Dragons he could understand. Hiccup just had a way of turning on pretty much every single dragon's soft side. But _girls?!_ This was insane. Tufffnut decided that when dragons started making more sense than humans it was time to go.

Leaping to his feet, Tuffnut said, "Thanks, gotta go," and bolted in the other direction. He ran a good hundred paces without realizing where he was going and rammed straight into Hiccup himself.

Hiccup stumbled backwards a bit, but managed to get his feet back under him before he hit the ground. Tuffnut was not so agile, or lucky, and his momentum sent him sprawling forward.

"Whoa, slow down a bit, Tuff," Hiccup said, adjusting the bundle in his arms and offering him a hand. "You almost flew as fast as Static there."

Tuffnut accepted Hiccup's hand and climbed to his feet.

"Nice haircut," Hiccup teased lightly.

Tuffnut groaned, his mind instantly going back to the after-haircut conversation.

Thankfully, Hiccup didn't inquire further and instead hefted his bundle a little higher. "This is your saddle. I was planning on going ahead and making those changes. It'd be good for you to see how it works in case you ever have to make a patch if you're away from home."

"Yeah, sounds good," Tuffnut agreed, eager to wash out his recent learnings with something else.

"I think we have enough material to start on a helmet," Hiccup rambled as they began trudging toward the forge. "Since that's one of the most important things we have. Protect our identity and our lives and all that. But I'll need to go to Bardikk again for more rubber. We don't have a lot of it on hand since I wasn't really expecting to be making a saddle for a Skrill. But I think their next Market Day is only a few days away, so hopefully that won't be much of a problem..."

Tuffnut's attention wandered as Hiccup starting going off on all the things they did and didn't need, understanding that he wasn't really talking _to_ him, more _at_ him. He was just organizing his thoughts. But it made Tuffnut realize that the other boy hd taken a lot of responsibility on himself by assembling this little band of vikings and building their little village. He was doing a great job though, and Tuffnut couldn't help but think they'd all terribly underestimated him back on Berk.

Or maybe, Tuffnut thought when Toothless appeared and matched Hiccup's stride, he just needed someone to bring it out.

~o~0~O~0~o~

A week after the meeting about it, Stoick made the announcement.

"The Meatheads have told us they are confident that they can lead us and whoever will join them to the Dragon Nest," Stoick boomed. "I have decided to join them."

A few murmurings rifled through the crowd, and Ruffnut and Astrid shared a knowing look.

"All vikings have been affected by the curse of the dragons," Stoick continued. "Their reach has extended more harshly to the other tribes in the last year. This is enough to unite the tribes long enough to deal with the dragons. If not, the dragons will only get stronger and bolder. We must act now! Who's with me!?"

The Berkians took a moment to respond, but no one could fault the Chief's logic. Nor could anyone pass up a real, substantial chance to exterminate the dragons once and for all. Answers arose from the crowds one viking at a time.

"I'm with you, Stoick."

"Just give the word, Chief."

"Ready, Cheif, let's go kill some dragons."

And so on until the whole hall had voiced their support.

Well, most of the hall.

"Good, ready the ships."

The vikings dispersed, heading home to pack or to the docks to prepare the ships.

Ruffnut and Astrid hung back, seeing the chief approach them.

"Astrid, Ruffnut," Stoick addressed them. "I expect you two to come as well."

His tone dared them to argue, to come up with an excuse for avoiding dragon-fighting _again_. That was something the two girls had avoided for completely different reasons, but avoiding nonetheless. For her part, Astrid desperately scrambled her mind for a reason, but Ruffnut had other ideas.

"Yes, Chief," Ruffnut responded. "Of course we will."

Stoick nodded in satisfaction and left the girls.

Ruffnut looked at Astrid, who was still trying to think of a way out, and crossed her arms. "This is a chance to kill the dragons and end the raids once and for all. What's got you all twisted?"

Astrid took in Ruffnut's no-nonsense expression (a rare one to be seen on a Thorston's face, to be sure) and blurted, "But we can't end it once and for all! Even with all the tribes!"

Ruffnut's eyebrows climbed to her hairline in disbelief. "Does this have something to do with Hiccup? Because I really don't think making friends with one dragon – "

"No!" Astrid interrupted. "I mean, yes, it has to do with Hiccup, but not the way you think."

Astrid wrung her hands, something so utterly unlike her. Should she tell Ruffnut? Could she trust her not to tell the Chief or anyone else? Of course she could, Astrid decided quickly. They were partners in crime. She could tell Ruffnut. In fact, she _should_ tell her.

"Not here," Astrid said, grabbing Ruffnut's wrist. She dragged the other girl out of the Great Hall toward the forest. Ruffnut didn't protest and, once she got over her surprise, matched Astrid's hurried stride.

They were deep into the forest when Astrid finally stopped, sure that no one would be out this far when they were preparing for war.

"Okay, Ruff, here's what happened," Astrid began. "But you can't tell _anyone_ about this."

Ruffnut nodding seriously, excitement at being let in on a big secret shining in her eyes. Astrid should have expected that Ruffnut's immediate response would not be the huge monstrosity that they would soon be facing.

"That's it?" she questioned a bit incredulously. "You just left?"

Astrid frowned. "Yeah, he said he'd figure something out and I left."

"You just left?" Ruffnut asked.

Realizing what the other girl was asking, Astrid felt her face heat up a little. "Yes! I just left."

Ruffnut snorted. "Oh come on! What happened to all those 'he's the least ugly guy on Berk', hmm?"

"Well, he doesn't exactly have much competition," Astrid growled. "Besides, that was years ago. Now can we please focus on the huge dragon that is going to kill us ALL?"

Ruffnut planted her hands on her hips and raised one eyebrow.

Astrid groaned, knowing she would get nowhere with the important stuff until Ruffnut got what she wanted. "Fine, I punched him on the shoulder for kidnapping me..."

"_And?_"

"_And_ I may have..." Astrid face heated all the way this time and she mumbled, "Pecked him on the cheek."

"Hah!"

Rolling her eyes, Astrid folded her arms. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I sent him a letter about the attack by Trader Johan but I don't have any idea when he'll get it, or if he'll get in time. So, you know, destruction of the viking culture looming here."

Ruffnut didn't bother to wipe the triumphant smirk off her face but did, admirably, focus on the task at hand. "Okay, okay. So, huge dragon, will kill us all. Is there anything we _can_ do?"

Astrid pressed her lips together. "I'm not sure. I don't know if I can tame a dragon like Hiccup did, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't ride one in time without him here to teach me."

Ruffnut grinned again suggestively, and Astrid had to punch her to bring her back from lala-land.

"But we should go," Astrd continued. "We can at least go down with the tribe I guess."

"Maybe we can figure something out there?" Ruffnut suggested.

Astrid shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. That thing is so big..."

"Then let's hope Hiccup gets your message," Ruffnut said.

"At least you'll know what's coming," Astrid said. "I don't think anyone else would believe me."

Ruffnut nodded, and the two shieldmaidens headed back toward the village, both hoping that the opportunity they needed would present itself. And soon.

~o~0~O~0~o~

Hiccup was too tired to go to bed. At first, that sounds like a bit of a contradiction but when you can just use a Night Fury as your bed, things tend to work out fine. Toothless had been exploding with extra energy that day, which he didn't deign to share with Hiccup, and even after their crazy flight that morning with Tuffnut and Static he had went in for an even crazier moonlit flight. Coupled with an especially busy day, Hiccup was truly exhausted.

Aesa said he didn't get enough sleep in the first place. Hiccup told her vikings didn't need that much sleep and waved her off. He was kind of regretting that now. But, deciding it was Toothless's fault he was so tired in the first place, Hiccup collapsed against the dragon's side and closed his eyes. It felt like he'd only just closed his eyes when Toothless was nudging him awake again.

Hiccup sleepily pushed the dragon's head away and mumbled, "'M tryin' t' sleep, T'thless."

He heard Toothelss snort and nudge him a little harder.

"G'way," he muttered again and ignored the dragon's insistence.

Finally Toothless decided to resort to drastic measures and stood up.

"Oof," Hiccup said as he hit the floor, groaning.

"Busy day yesterday?" someone who was most definitely not Toothless said.

Sighing, Hiccup sat up and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. Then he dropped his hands and squinted through the morning sunlight to see Hall. Wait, morning sunlight? Hall?

Hiccup jerked to his feet, wide awake now. You know you've slept late when Hall of people comes to get you up. "What time is it?"

Hall smirked, leaning against the doorway. "Midmorning. You missed breakfast with everybody. I guess Toothless decided to let you sleep."

Hiccup gave his best friend a grateful smile then said to Hall, "Just give me a minute."

He shed his black leather riding armor which he had slept in, wincing at the creases and aches it had caused. He wasn't making that mistake again. He made quick work of removing Toothless's harness too and then hurried out of his house. His stomach was grumbling.

Hall fell in to step next to them, along with Brighteyes, all the way to their pavilion. The other viking didn't say anything until Hiccup and Toothless both had their respective breakfasts in front of them.

"So," Hall began slowly, resting his elbows on the table. "The Red Death."

Hiccup sighed. "I know, Hall, but I want us to be prepared."

"I know you do," Hall said placatingly. "But we can't keep putting it off."

"I _know_ that, Hall," Hiccup repeated firmly. "But I want everyone to survive the encounter. That dragon is _huge_. Besides... I still have no idea how we're going to defeat it."

"None at all?" Hall probed.

"None," Hiccup confirmed. "I doubt our fire is going to affect it very much, and it's hide is too thick to really get any metal through, I'm sure. Not to mention it's _huge._ Even if we could stab it, it'd probably be as painful as a pinprick or a bee sting."

"Be that as it may, I don't think we can put it off any longer," Hall said. "Aesa and I have been keeping an eye on dragon activity as best we can through our patrols and days off. They raids are getting more frequent and the dragons are going farther out to hunt, all the way to the other tribes. This is getting worse. The Red Death is getting more greedy _and_ more powerful."

Hiccup exhaled heavily through his nose. He'd suspected as much, but to have Hall confirm it was depressing to say the least. He leaned against the tabletop, staring sightlessly at his breakfeast, mind racing. He wasn't sure his band of dragon riders could be more prepared than they already were, but _he_ wasn't prepared. He had no plan, he wasn't even sure he'd ever be able to come up with one. But Hall was right, they had to do something. Otherwise their own dragons were going to fall under the Red Death's control again. He was also pretty sure the vikings would eventually be starved by the raids if they didn't die in them. Should they attempt it anyway? Even if there was little to no chance of survival?

Probably.

Coming to a decision, Hiccup looked up at Hall and said, "Okay, as soon as Tuffnut's ready I'll make one last scout to see if I can find anything and then, regardless of what I do or don't find, we'll attack."

"And when will Tuffnut be ready?" Hall questioned sharply.

"Soon," Hiccup assured. "He's a natural with Static. Once Drott and I finish his gear he'll be as ready as any of us."

"Good." Hall nodded and stood from the table. He took three steps away from the table and then glanced back. "Hiccup?"

"Hmm?" Hiccup said, going back to staring at the table.

"We'll figure it out," Hall promised. "Together, we'll find a way."

Hiccup looked up and smiled gratefully at him. "I hope so."

~o~0~O~0~o~

Ruffnut watched Berk disappear behind the horizon, a cold fist clenching her gut. Guessing from Astrid's expression, she was probably feeling the same. The gigantic dragon Astrid had described had seemed almost beyond belief, but Ruffnut believed her. They were partners in crime, thick as thieves, she wouldn't lie.

But Ruffnut almost wished she could have remained ignorant of the fate they would meet at the Dragon's Nest, if, in fact, they got there. Then at least she could have lived her last days filled with adrenaline instead of anxiety. Even with all the tribes at their side, a dragon like the one Astrid described would probably win.

"Hiccup will be there," Astrid said quietly. "He has to be."

Ruffnut nodded, but she wished someone else would be there. Now she wasn't to prideful to admit she missed her brother. At a time like this she _really_ wanted him back. Hopefully he was safe wherever he was. Ruffnut imagined him causing mayhem on some poor village, safe and sound, ignorant of the nearing end of most of the vikings in the Barbaric Archipelago.

The idiot, Ruffnut thought fondly.

* * *

**A/N: 'Kay, guys! I am alive! Surprised? Yeah, me too. Busy real life and all that jazz. Plus my own original characters are quite demanding. But you know how many of you are following this story? Over 100! You guys are amazing. But anyway, we're getting close to seeing our dragon riders in action. Are you guys excited? I'm excited :D Oh, and this is how I've decided to deal with reviews. I think I got everybody. I really appreciate all the favorites and reviews, guys. Love you all!**

**thetattooedrose: Thank you :)**

**GrimCreeper: Done.**

**TheGallopingCupcake: Yep, finally, after 5 chapters, he has a dragon. With a Tuff-style name. And, please don't die yet. I really like your reviews.**

**Fleightfire: Correct-a-mundo.**

**Hiccupisnotuseless: Ooh, best chapter? Thanks :) Now let's see if I can top it.**

**God of Spirits-Spirit Black: Yes, only Tuffnut.**

**Guest: Thanks :)**

**silverray989: I'm glad you like it, I'm getting quite attached to Helfire myself.**

**faisyah865: Thank you :) *is pleased with myself***

**MySweetYaoi49: Mhm, something along those lines.**

**RoseJustice: You know, that's a fantastic idea, and I might just use it. You're a smart person, Rose.**

**Ramen-luver101: Thanks :)**

** : Thank you so much :) That's exactly what I've been going for, so it's good to know it's working!**

**Luna-Moongoddess: Good question, you'll just have to wait and see!**

**Guest: Sorry, but I'm not doing Tuff/Hiccup. A) I've already planned on Hiccstrid and B) That's not my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.**


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